Gemini Musica : RL
by Designated NPC
Summary: A series of fic revolving around the Kagamine twins, primarily Rin. New Chapter: Sadistic Vampire, and more Author's Notes. Yes, I know you luuuuuuv those, but...
1. Spice!

Len was lucky that he'd born a man, because otherwise he would've been a slut instead of a stud. But, whatever unfairness there was in life, this one at least worked in his favor: He'd learned early on how easy it was to make girls fall for him, how to wheedle his way into their good graces with a bright smile and a sly look from under blond bangs. It was almost kind of sad, and he remembered being younger, lighter, far more innocent, and laughing about it with Rin. That was years ago, though, and he didn't talk about that with her anymore.

Part of him knew that it was probably pretty futile; gossip got around, after all, and what he was doing with half the pretty girls at school was legend. Hell, he wasn't even restricted by the girls he saw in the hallways; though no-one could quite say for sure, it was rumored he was playing gigolo to several older woman, one of whom was a stunning redhead who'd dropped him off at school. Well, Lean didn't see any reason not to bank off his natural talents, but still, he didn't... He didn't want Rin to know. Just because.

He didn't want her to think any less of him. She'd be the only one, he knew, who would, because everyone else was either busy envying him or trying to be with him. Rin would just stamp her foot impatiently if he tried to brush it off, and demand to know why he treated those poor girls so badly. And what could Len say to that? Definitely not the truth, anyway.

No matter what Rin might already feel about him, Len knew that she'd hate him if he told her why he slept around.

* * *

Miku was probably his first, if only because it seemed like he'd known her the longest, aside from Rin, and she wouldn't tell anyone if something went wrong. It was with Miku that Len discovered how easy it was to twist a girl to your liking, the places to touch her and the right words to say to make her promise you anything if you made her yours. Miku wasn't the easiest girl to get along with, sometimes she could be demanding, but after a few tries she was as good as Len's forever. Len figured that it was always better to have a standby, and she wasn't very high-maintenance. She had a nice voice, and it was even nicer when she was whimpering his name.

Meiko was the next one that Len would qualify as a 'regular,' a sexy older-sister type he met at an audition. He'd won the part and gone home with her number, and Len had been pleasantly surprised to find that Meiko was more than happy to use both her connections and her "experience" for his benefit. As a bonus, the older woman was used to the no-strings-attached affair, and she always slipped Len some cash before she kissed him good-bye until next time.

Kasame rounded out Len's personal harem, a junior at school with goth-loli hair in a distinctly non-goth bright pink, a childish type who always insisted they eat out (and thank god that Meiko gave him spending-money). Kasame was the latest addition, someone who'd come up to Len on her own as he made his rounds at the arcade, latching onto him like a puppy and rarely leaving his side. In retrospect, Len might admit that maybe she was a little young, but he wasn't that many years older than her and she could do a lot worse than him for her first time. (And, according to Miku and Meiko, not much better... but Len didn't need to brag.)

Interspersed among those three were a small crowd of other girls who came and went, classmates or girls he met at his part-time job, or maybe just girls who caught a glimpse of him out somewhere and were instantly smitten. There was a pretty large number of those, if Len ever bothered to add it up; it was a good thing for him that he couldn't let himself get too big of an ego.

How good could his luck really be, after all, if he had no chance with the only one he actually cared for?

* * *

Maybe Len was a heartless playboy, but he hadn't always been that way. When he was younger, his entirely world had consisted of only Len and Rin; they hadn't needed anyone else, and they'd always thought it'd stay that way. But they'd gotten older, and although Len knew Rin had never started loving him any less, he slowly began realizing that he was starting to love her _more_. They were fourteen when he first realized that they couldn't always be together, when she confided in him with a giggle and a smile the tall, dark, and handsome man she knew would come for her one day: This faceless man was the opposite of her twin, who was - like Rin herself - blond and cute, and it dawned on Len that he was nothing like the man his sister wanted to marry.

In the footsteps of that crushing thought was the knowledge that he, as Rin's brother, shouldn't be having such feelings about her in the first place. He should have teased her about it and let it go, instead of staring in startled shock and trying desperately to stifle the numbness spreading through his heart.

Well, _fine_. If he couldn't be with Rin, he'd find someone else, just as she'd find someone to replace _him_. In a world full of available women, surely there'd be another girl who could make Len forget about these feelings for his sister? Wouldn't there be _someone_ in the world who could make Len love her as he already loved Rin?

Four years later, Len had found the answer to that question, and the answer was definitively '**NO**.' All those women and the only thing he could think of while he was touching them was '_What would Rin feel like, if I could touch her here?' 'What would she say as she curled against my skin?' 'Would she be a screamer, like Miku, or a moaner like Meiko, or just hungry the way Kasame always is?'_ Len thought that Rin would be different from all of them because Rin was entirely her own, and when frustrated desire conflicted with the guilt of those feelings, Len was always rougher with whatever girl he was with.

Len thought that he was probably a terrible person, and if there was a Heaven he wouldn't be going there with Rin. Len thought that was probably for the best, because if he could barely keep himself away from her as it was, how could he do so for all of time?

* * *

The twins hadn't been in the same classroom for almost as long, and the worst part of it was that Len didn't think Rin had even noticed the growing distance between them. Didn't she care at all of they were drifting apart? Was she really as happy as she seemed, always all smiles and sunshine? If so, then what was wrong with Len, that he couldn't be as happy as Rin? Well, he knew the answer to that already...

And still, Len thought that he'd be able to handle it, even if it meant living out his life in perpetual sin. He'd thought that, until Rin had... Until _that guy_ had...

Even now, almost a year later, just the thought of what had happened was enough to make Len's blood boil, his fists tightening until his knuckles were white and his body sang with tension. At first it was just a line or two at the table during breakfast and during dinner, a faint blush that spread over Rin's smooth cheeks as she said "Kaito-sensei is such a wonderful teacher," or "Kaito-sensei is only a new graduate, but he's already done so much!" It wasn't until later that Len actually saw this 'Kaito-sensei,' a tall man with dark-blue hair and a white coat. Begrudgingly, hating it, Len had to admit that the man was good-looking; this new teacher was exactly the kind of tall, dark, and handsome that Rin had described not five years ago, and now Rin's dream-man was smiling at her shamelessly just outside the classroom, the way a teacher definitely shouldn't be smiling at his student, making Rin turn pink with happiness. Silhouetted by sunlight, the sight of her made Len's heart skip a beat, but even the fawning of Neru and Yowane couldn't banish the jealousy that filled his heart.

Len never brought the subject up, and Rin never mentioned it; probably, thought Len venomously, too happy with her little secret romance. And as time passed, and Rin became more and more radiant with happiness, Len felt his heart grow darker and darker, until it was a daily struggle to keep that side of him from Rin's eyes. Even now, she was still the one thing that Len knew to be pure: Women were all too ready to whore themselves out, men were too eager to use them, but Rin was still just the innocent girl she'd always been. Rin had been easily fooled by this Kaito guy, who had to be some kind of pervert for using his teacher's status like this against a student... but Len guessed that Kaito didn't have the market cornered on perversion.

* * *

And even then, Len had managed to hide his true self from Rin, that self who had become a selfish man, using others for his own pleasure in a desperate attempt to fill the void that was never satisfied. Len often stayed over at one girl's house or another, sometimes at two in one night, but he always made sure to be home by the time that Rin woke up, slipping back into Apartment 202 before anyone else was awake. That way he would always be home in time to see her just after she woke from sleep, her blonde hair mussed from her pillow, an unguarded expression on her face that was rarely seen any other time. Rin would smile and say 'good morning,' and Len always let her into the bathroom to get ready first - Partially because it made her happy, partially because he needed the time to recover, wondering what it would be like to wake with her sleeping face next to his, curled together as they were when they were children, but with an entirely new level of meaning to their actions.

As the year drew to a close, Len could take solace in only one thing: The year would end, and he and Rin would graduate, and that'd be the end of the Rin's infatuation with Kaito. But on the second-to-last day of class, Rin didn't meet Len at the school gates as she usually did, and rather than walk home alone Len went looking for her. He remembered thinking that it was too empty to be real, the glow of the sunset casting orange-gold light through all of the deserted hallways, and he automatically began treading softer, his shoes making no noise against the white tile. When he came to Rin's classroom, the silence of the abandoned school made the soft, plaintive sound that followed all the more obvious, making the very blood freeze within Len's veins.

Len knew that sound well, had elicited it from the slender throats of countless pretty girls, but this was in a voice that he had known all his life, the one voice he'd always known he would never, ever be able to play in such a manner. Although his mind was telling him to run, no matter if they heard his retreating steps, a morbid curiosity drove him forward to see if the myriad images in his head were anything close to true.

Framed against the setting sun, Rin was perched on her desk by the window, clinging tightly to her teacher so that her fingers pulled furrows in his coat. Rin's face was half-buried in Kaito's shoulder, the curve of her cheeks scarlet and her murmuring, half-muffled words almost pleading, as her dark-haired lover traced his lips over her bared neck and pulled her towards him with one arm. The other arm was... Where was his other hand? Len's view was, perhaps mercifully, obscured by that damned white coat, but it couldn't be possible that they were... Rin wouldn't...

... Would she?

* * *

Anger and jealousy rouse to an unbearable pitch in Len's head, a sudden cacophony of emotions that left him feeling weak and dizzy with their sheer force, as though his legs would collapse from under him at any moment. Len was a breath away from kicking the door wide open and demanding to know what the hell was going on, dragging Rin away from that so-called teacher and possibly trying his damndest to kill Kaito at the same time... but at the last minute he forced himself away from the door, staggering down the hall, scrubbing away hot, poisonous tears a moment away from beginning to scream and never, ever being able to stop.

The rest of the afternoon was a blur to Len, as was the ensuing night; he knew only that at some point he'd calmed down, had picked up a girl near the train-station and taken her to a love-hotel and left her exhausted an hour later. Then there had been another, on the way to the closest coffee-machine, and one more at the convenience-store, and before Len was fully aware of himself he was waking up to the ring of his cell on the bedside table, it was two AM in the morning and Miku was lying beside him in an oblivious slumber. Meiko was on the phone, and Len could almost see her sensual lips shaping the playful words that greeted him: Meiko understood that Len was on a spree tonight, wouldn't it be fun if he could drop by her place for a while? Len smiled, laughed, and agreed he'd be there as soon as he could.

Len did _not_ go to Meiko's that night, and spent hours wandering until he finally realized that, if he were going to get home before Rin knew he was gone, he'd have to head back at once. The sky was filtering pale-blue pre-dawn light by the time he made it back to the apartment, and at roughly that time Miku woke to find herself in an empty bed. A slender hand lingered over the mattress, but the sheets were cold; Len had not been beside her for some time. To herself, Miku admitted that he probably had never been with her to begin with.

* * *

His key scraped the keyhole once before it slide into the lock and he let himself in; it was just another early morning, but this time he stopped before he entered his own room, his aqua-green gaze staring at the sign on Rin's door with an inscrutable expression. He should just go into his room, throw off his clothes and get some sleep before the day's graduation ceremonies, but Len couldn't bring himself to pretend that he hadn't seen what he'd seen. Rin had always been untouchable to him, but didn't she see herself the same way? Len had accepted that he couldn't have her, but he'd never thought that he'd have to handle Rin _giving_ herself away! Of all people, of anyone, this Kaito guy... Len's face was a mask, but behind the blank look in his eyes was a storm of turmoil, a futile attempt to banishing the images currently invading his mind. Was this the first time that Rin had...

Had there been anyone else before?

Almost without his conscious control, Len found himself crossing the hall instead, brushing a hand over the silver knob of his sister's door and twisting it slowly, silently, under his fingers. Rin's room was messy as always, but bright with the yellow and - now - blue trim; on her desk was a vase they'd made together, when they were still in elementary school building with empty milk-bottles, but the flowers in the vase were yellow and blue. Len darted a glance at the shadowed corner where Rin was still sleeping, then yanked the violets from among the yellow daisies with such force that their petals crushed in his hand, making a soft brushing whisper as he tossed them into the wastebasket.

How long had it been since he'd been in his sister's room?

Len's footsteps were just as silent as they'd been the day before, and he crossed the floor to her bedside to sweep his eyes over her nightstand. There was the picture from elementary school, where Rin was all smiles and Len was eyeing the camera like it was going to steal her away; there was the picture from their middle-school years, the blush on Len's discomfited features a direct result of Rin's close proximity. In front of both was a framed image of Kaito and Rin, their cheeks pressed together as Rin looked far too happy as Kaito's arm cradled her to him, and Len was heroically able to resisting shattering the glass right there. The darkness building to the fore once again, Len looked to his sleeping twin and wondered how things could be so very unfair, how they could look so much alike but only Rin could find any sort of peace. Her skin was almost glowing in the cool light, her blonde hair spread out across her pillow like a halo, and there was a hint of a smile curving her lips; Len's tender thoughts, at Rin's angelic appearance, was marred by the question of what was causing that almost-smile. Was Rin dreaming of their past happiness together, as Len did almost every night, or was she dreaming of her azure-haired lover?

* * *

Absorbed in his own thoughts, Len almost didn't notice it when Rin began to stir, stretching like a feline under her covers as she turned her head towards the light seeping in from the open door. Her eyelids shuttered open like a butterfly's wings, aqua-green in the half-light, and widened as she found herself pinned by a gaze that matched her own. Rin's lips began to form a question, but the blonde was unable to get that far; before a single word was said, Len had leaned over her bed and pinned her to the mattress with his own body, a hand grasping her wrist so tightly that she was sure it would leave a mark. Rin had a moment when she started to struggle, before Len covered her mouth with his own.

Rin tasted like sugar and sunlight, and suddenly Len didn't care what came next: All he could think of was the taste of his one, his only, intent on making her forget the flavor of that bastard who'd been there before him. What, Len wondered, did Len himself taste like?

He'd have to ask Rin, when they were through.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** There may be more, based off the other vids and possibly originals, but for now this is a one-shot.... that got a bit dark near the end? Reviews may help change its one-shot status, though... XD


	2. Spice! II

_At 5AM on that March morning, Rin had just barely crossed the threshold between Waking and Sleeping, her eyes blinking open almost hesitantly; it was still cool these days, and it was so cozy and warm in her bed that she almost hated to start each morning by getting out of it. And last night, she'd had the most wonderful dream about Kaito-sensei; if she'd been more awake, she would have colored at the memory of her reminisces, tinged with uncertainty and nervousness about the coming day. Kaito-sensei had been so kind, and she thought she could never be any happier than when he accepted her feelings, but yesterday..._

_'Kaito-sensei, when I graduate... we won't see each other anymore.'_

_'Why won't we, Rin-chan? Will you be interested in a college boy now that you're going away?'_

_'N-No! But...'_

_Kaito-sensei had the most brilliant smile, and he'd smiled that way as he'd caressed her cheek, which had instantly blossomed with a bright pink blush as he'd brought his face down to hers._

_'Now that you won't be my student, we can be together in public. Unless you don't want to be, any more... ?'_

_Rin's hair whipped against her neck as she shook her head madly, until Kaito stopped her with a gentle hand on her chin, lifting her face towards his as he moved closer. Rin had blushed even harder at that; true, the school was empty, but..._

_'Here, sensei?' she'd asked, and Kaito had smiled, so close that she could feel the curve of his lips against hers._

_'Here, Rin.' And how could she turn him away?_

* * *

The digital face of the clock flickered once, twice, and the neon-green numbers read 7:00 AM; the little white cat atop of the clock struck the metal orange with a paw, and twelve tinny chimes rang out through the silent room. On an ordinary day, the room would already be empty and its occupant on the way to school, but...

Today was not an ordinary day.

Rin was wedged into the corner of her room, her knees drawn up to her face and her arms wrapped tightly around them as though to stop their shaking, although if anything it only made her trembling more obvious. Her face was buried in the nest of her arms, and the morning sunlight beating at her window was thwarted by the shades that were now drawn tight. She should have been leaving for school long before, she should have at least been finished dressing; graduation was a big day, wasn't it? The day she stopped being a girl and became a woman?

Hot tears welled fresh in Rin's aqualine eyes, and she curled ever more into herself above her flower-strewn sheets, pure white and scattered with printed sunflowers. She loved this pattern, had bought new sheets as the earlier ones wore out, but now it seemed as though each sunflower's dark center regarded her with a single cycloptic eye. Was it with pity or in accusation that these mute blossoms now stared? Rin had always loved those sunflowers, but now she closed her eyes against them, although the tears continued to force their way from her eyes.

* * *

_She had practically floated home, two hours late but not worried; her father was at the office, he rarely came home, and her mother was in the kitchen. Len, she'd noticed, wasn't home, and when she asked their mother, Rin found out that he hadn't even left a message... but Len was acting more and more distant those days, a fact which caused Rin a certain amount of hurt. Didn't he want to hang out with her anymore? True, they had different friends now, but he was still her brother; yet, it seemed that every time they DID manage to talk, he was always moving onto some other topic, some other something he had to do. Rin wasn't deaf, she knew what the other kids at school said he did in his spare time, but if he didn't bring it up she wasn't going to either. And besides, she couldn't really rebuke him for messing around and not telling her; she was keeping Kaito a secret from Len, wasn't she?_

_When Len didn't come back for dinner, Rin began to feel the first twinges of worry; usually he made it home by then, or at least he called her to say that he'd be eating out with friends. Even the complete lack of word, however, didn't worry Rin over-much, as she knew very well that Len was capable of taking care of himself. In fact, this was part of the reason that she was so good at hiding her hurt at his distance, because when they were younger Len was almost suffocating with his guarding of her, and if whatever he was doing gave him something else to keep his mind on..._

_Rin finished dinner without really realizing it, then wandered upstairs. No homework, for once, so she sat at her desk and doodled flowers and suns, talked on the phone with her friends for another hour or two, and finally decided to turn in early. There were butterflies in her stomach about the ceremony the next day, and the last thing she needed was to get hit with nerves and insomnia and wind up with dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep. After brushing her teeth and changing into her pajamas, Rin held her graduation uniform up to her chest, over her yellow pajamas with its varying white horizontal lines, and give a playful turn in front of the mirror. She would, she decided, wear her hair down, with those blue barrettes that Kaito gave her for Valentine's Day._

_The brand-new uniform hung on a rack in her open closet, motionless and starched, clean black wool and white-linen; she remembered trying it on with Neru and Yowane, giggling at each other and at the butterflies that rose in their stomach at the thought of graduation. What would happen after school ended, they asked; would they see each other any more? Rin still hadn't gotten her confirmation back from Tokyo University, and she didn't even know if Len had applied; she'd worried about him so much that her girlfriends had asked if she was all right, but Rin just smiled and shook her head. She'd be fine - It was just nerves. How should they wear their hair on graduation day?_

* * *

Now Rin's hair is half-tangled, pale gold in the room's near-darkness, the kind of plaits that old people once called "lover's knots," and she doesn't think she'll be able to go to school at all. How could she sit through the ceremony, as calm and as neat as she needed to be? How could she stand up there when her name was called, recieve her diploma and smile for their parents, when one of the hundreds of pairs of eyes who was watching her belonged to...

Rin choked back a sudden sob, rubbing angrily at her eyes because her tears were the only things she could take out her feelings on. How could Len _DO_ this to her?? This was supposed to be such... such a wonderful day...

The ceiling-fan spun in slow circles overhead, and Rin shivered in what she told herself was just a chill caused by the breeze. A trembling hand hovered over her heart, and she forced it to steady before that hand went to her pajamas and held closed the loose, bright-yellow top. There were only loose white threads where the buttonholes once were, the white buttons lost somewhere among the rumpled sheets, or maybe over the carpet, little plastic hearts strewn across her room. Rin felt the tears begin to well up once more, and she willed them away as she raked a hand through her hair. Like a transparency layered atop a screen, she had the bizarre sensation of another hand running through her unstyled blonde locks, loving and possessive as they reeled her back in, and she snatched her own hand away with a compulsive shiver.

Was this what it was going to be like, now? Would she be able to do anything, to feel anything ever again, without feeling the ghost of her twin brother as he was in that early almost-morning?

* * *

_She knew it was Len at once; he was still as familiar to Rin as Rin herself, but what was he doing in her room, so silent and still? She could barely see his eyes, and she didn't have time to breathe a word before she was startled by Len's sudden movement, as he half-fell on her in the darkness; the only reason she didn't voice a cry was that his mouth was immediately on hers in a kiss that almost seared away whatever reason she'd managed to muster. His lips were hot, but the hand gripping her wrist was like ice, and Rin found herself wondering if Len had been out without his jacket again. He knew how long it took him to warm up after coming in from the cold..._

_Suddenly Rin came back to herself, terribly aware of her brother's weight across her body, and it flashed through her mind that this was **wrong!** No matter that he was kissing her more perfectly than any kiss she'd ever received, he shouldn't be kissing her at all, and this she tried to say as she struggled to push him away, pressing her head into her pillow until their lips separated. To Rin's horror, she almost immediately missed the heat of her twin's mouth, and twisted her face to the side to hide the fiery blush that painted her cheeks at the idea. It was a struggle to keep still, but she didn't speak until she felt Len's hand trailing its way across her cheek, cold against its flush, and his voice in her ear was an unfamiliar purr that made Rin bite her lip against a gasp._

_"What's wrong, Rin?" he asked, and she wanted to say 'Everything,' but she couldn't trust herself not to change the words before she said it, and she felt him smile as his hand slid across the bare skin of her neck, over her shoulder, then down her side to rest on her hip as though she belonged to him. Maybe, whispered a part of Rin's mind, she **did**, as he belonged to her; after all, hadn't they been together even before they were born? But... she loved Kaito-sensei, didn't she?  
_

_"Len, please..." Rin raised her eyes to Len, and the feline smile on his face both alarmed her and thrilled her in a way she didn't want to understand. "We can't... It's..." Rin knew that she was grasping at straws, but she had to say something, **anything**, to make Len leave before things went too far!_

_"... Kaito-sensei..."_

_The smile on Len's face vanished, and Rin stared, horrified, at the mixture of anger and hurt that was written plainly across her brother's features._

_"You... Rin, you..."_

_His hand on her wrist tightened until it hurt, and Rin, for the first time, began to feel afraid, as she felt his other hand wind itself in the loose cotton of her pajamas until the fabric was drawn tight._

* * *

Shaking her head as if to clear it, Rin forced herself to calm down; her heart was racing, although the cause behind it was as mysterious as Len's actions. Was it out of fear, that the one she'd known and loved all her life would act like such a... such a _stranger?_ Or was it the unspeakable idea that, for all her protests, she may well share the feelings that had driven her twin to such a drastic move?

_'No! I... I can't think about that now!' _Rin crawled to the edge of her mattress, sliding her feet onto the floor; the rug below her feet was soft, but as she crossed the room the chill ate into the soles of her feet. She averted her eyes from the mirror, focusing only on the clothes hanging smoothly in her closet; grabbing it up in a bundle that almost wrinkled the whole thing, she cracked her door open just a slit, glancing out into the hall. Across from her room, Len's door was shut, but the apartment seemed empty; it seemed as though he, at least, had already left. Not looking back, Rin half-fled across the wooden floor to the bathroom, where she locked the door behind her and yanked open the shower-curtain with such force that the thin plastic tore through several of the rings. Spinning the left faucet, Rin was soon filling the room with misty steam from the hot water pouring from the showerhead, and in the warmth that filled the bathroom she stripped off her pajamas and let them fall to the floor.

Once ensconced in the shower-stall, Rin let her forehead rest against the slippery tiled wall as the hot water beat down on her bare back, warming her to her bones as she re-organized her thoughts. What had happened... It changed nothing. She had to attend the graduation ceremony or people would ask what had happened, and someone might find out. If that was the case, then what would they think about the Kagamine twins? What... What would happen to Len?

No... She'd handle this on her own. She'd figure _something_ out. Len had always looked out for her, and now, even though she didn't understand why he had done what he'd done, Rin would do what she could to look out for him. _Someone_ had to... right?

* * *

**Author's Notes:** As requested, a continuation of the Spice! vid/fic. I hope it lives up to the first installment? And, because I didn't include it last time, sorry about the formatting - I'm having PC problems so .txt is the best I can do. -_-;

As before, reviews encourage me! If you want a continuation, or want to request something, I'll consider it if you ask! I'm planning to do Rin/Len's other songs as well as a none-song-based oneshot, but I'll also consider other Japanese songs, as well as other prompts as long as they're Rin and/or Len-centric. (Rin is my favorite, FYI.)


	3. Meri Kurisumasu!

It was December the 24th, and Japan was having a white Christmas. For once, instead of the dingy gray snow or steady drizzle that normally afflicted Tokyo in December, there were fluffy white banks of snow lining the sidewalks and streets, making all of the shop-fronts and even the houses look like gingerbread models. Until yesterday, it had been doubtful that they'd get any snow at all in the city, but when the first commuters woke up before dawn on the 24th, they woke up to a literal winter wonderland.

The snow hadn't been around long enough to be touched by the smog and dust of Tokyo's cars, so it still lay around like a white coverlet, undisturbed wherever the snow-piles hadn't been jumped in by some excited school-kid. In keeping with the orderly nature of Japan, the sidewalks and streets had been duly and dutifully shoveled as soon as it was possible, and even now some streets and walkways were still being cleared, but for the most part people were able to enjoy the unusual weather just as though they were characters in something on TV.

For one young man, however, this season's holidays were far from jolly. Kagamine Len much preferred warmth to cold, and right now he'd been out and about in the city for the past five hours, racing frantically from shop to shop in search of the perfect Christmas cake and finding each and every bake shelf bare. Well, he'd been racing in the beginning, and towards the middle, but with each store whose owners grinned apologetically, Len was finding it harder and harder to muster up the energy.

Not that the desperation was diminishing, mind. If anything, it was increasing by the minute. But it was _still snowing_, dammit, and he was _cold_, and no place had that stupid cake in stock!

* * *

Pausing for a moment in his trudge over the slick sidewalk, Len leaned against the closest wall, yet another bakery that was closed for the day. Behind him, the icy wall ate through the back of his coat, but he tried to ignore it as he glared moodily up at the dark-gray sky.

_'Maybe,' _he thought, _'Rin won't mind not having it? I mean, geez, waiting 'til this late...'_ But almost as soon as he thought it, Len knew that wasn't an option. After all, he was the one who'd screwed up and not thought to plan ahead; Rin had actually asked for one back in the summertime.

Well, not ASKED _per se_, but she'd said she wanted one. And...

* * *

_The summer sun was still beating down hot on the two young bodies lying by the stream, spread-eagled on the warm grass and blue eyes closed against the sun's glare. But despite the balmy, slightly-sticky weather surrounding them, Kagamine Rin suddenly opened her eyes, smiled, and said "You know what? I hope I get a Christmas cake this year."_

_"Uh... What?" 'Nice one,' Len berated himself, as he opened his own eyes and propped himself up on one elbow to look at Rin in bewilderment. "It's the middle of August, Rin... What's this about Christmas cakes now?"_

_"Well, I just thought... it'd be nice." Rin glanced up at Len with a cheeky grin, then mirrored his action to prop herself up on her elbow, so that they were eye to eye. "I mean, I'll be fifteen, and that's about the time a girl ought to get a Christmas cake, right?" Rin giggled, her free hand plucking a long-stemmed flowering weed and rolled the pale-green stem between her fingertips. "You know."_

_"Aah." That noncommittal noise out of the way, Len's eyes dropped to the grass as well, and he began idly tugging blades of grass from the turf beneath them, sure that the faint redness spreading over his cheeks was just the result of the sun._

_"So, uh, is there..." Not a choke, nope, not at all. "... anyone you... You know."_

_Rin blinked, then managed to decipher Len's stammering and nodded with a bright smile, the tips of her bow bobbing with her movement. "Yeah. But, I... Okay, I'll tell you, but you gotta promise not to tell, okay?"_

_"Um... Yeah." And Len gave a brief nodded in acknowledgment, then immediately suffered an increased case of sunburn as Rin leaned in, her lips just an inch or so away from Len's ear._

_"I really, really want a Christmas cake from Kaito-niisan."_

* * *

Well, thought Len, half-triumphantly, she wasn't going to be getting that cake from Kaito... but the half-grin on Len's face immediately faded as he recalled just how devastated Rin looked, when she knocked on his door a week ago and quietly confided to him that Miku had told her that Meiko had let it slip that... Well, in short, Kaito was planning a Very Special Christmas for Miku and himself, and Rin did her best not to cry as Len pulled her into a hug and mentally turned the air as blue as Kaito's hair.

So, while Rin wasn't getting her Christmas cake from Kaito, Len wasn't about to let her Christmas be ruined altogether. (Especially considering the fact that since that day, she hadn't even been able to watch those ads on TV touting Christmas as 'the season for romance'... and there were a _LOT_ of ads.)

Pushing himself away from the wall, Len adjusted his scarf with a determined expression, although it was half-obscured by his cap. He'd either get her one of those damn cakes or freeze to death trying... and Len could only hope that Rin wouldn't mind it if the cake came from her brother instead of her crush.

_'What makes that guy so cool, anyway?' _he thought, as he hastened down the steps to the subway; he'd heard there were still some bakeries in Shibuya that might, _MIGHT_, still be trying to get rid of their Christmas cake stock._ 'I mean, geez... Kaito-niisan isn't THAT great...'_

And, for the entirety of the train-ride, which was on an almost entirely empty train, that formed the essential basis of Len's thoughts. By the time it was pulling into the station, Len had decided that it was entirely okay to blame Kaito for it all, because if Kaito hadn't gone and done whatever he'd done to get Rin liking him, Rin wouldn't have been crushed when Kaito went for Miku and Len wouldn't be running around Tokyo like a character out of a shojo manga.

Len did his utmost not to wonder what exactly made Kaito likable to Rin, because then it inevitably led to him wondering if it was at all possible to replicate that in himself. Len also tried not to think too much about the manga comparison, because in those girly things the guy was always running himself ragged to make a girl happy although she didn't know how much the guy really liked her, and Len didn't think the comparison really worked. He was just trying to cheer Rin up because she was his sister, after all... He just didn't want her to spend the holidays feeling like someone didn't love her.

That was it, really. That was all.

* * *

A few minutes later, Len was staring at another 'closed' sign with something like disbelief on his face, before yanking his hat off his head and doing his best to rip it in half. "Can't a guy just do something _NICE_ for the person he loves anymore?!?" he demanded of the air, before suddenly clapping a gloved hand over his mouth, now surmounted by wide eyes. Loved like a sister, is what he meant! For a person that he loved like his sister, and not like, uh... Someone you would normally give Christmas cake to... ?

"You know," said a voice behind him, "there's still that bakery at Sensoji, if you're determined." That was a familiar voice, and Len forced himself to calm down within a span of three seconds before turning abruptly to face Kaito, having to look up and hating it sincerely. "I'm sure whoever you want that cake for would be happy with one from Asakusa."

"..." Len looked at Kaito wordlessly, taking in the number of designer-labeled bags piled high in the other Vocaloid's arms; apparently, he was on his way to Miku, wherever they'd agreed to meet. Len crossed his arms over his chest, not quite able to question how Kaito just happened to be _RIGHT THERE_ to witness his outburst, and Kaito only smiled above his long white muffler.

"Tell Rin-chan Merry Christmas for me and Miku, okay?"

Len stared, completely floored, as Kaito nodded in departure and took his leave. Len didn't stare for long, though; he had a train to catch!

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Len was pelting up the wide lane, lined on both sides by mostly-closed shops and souvenir-stands. Under most circumstances it would be filled, both with merchants and with tourists who were coming to visit the shrine, but despite the picturesque snow and sparkling landscape, all Len was focused on was scanning the stalls for an available bakery... and, Kami-sama willing, at least one with an available Christmas cake.

Finally, near the end of the line, he saw a classy-looking storefront with an overhanging that read "Plaire," and although it looked like it was in the process of closing up, there was a single Christmas cake still left in the glass window. While Len could take sweet snacks and he could leave them, he didn't expect the wave of relief that washed over him at the sight of the white, fruit-topped cake.

**"I WOULD LIKE TO BUY THAT CAKE, PLEASE."** Len was aware that he must have sounded slightly desperate, and he probably looked the worse for wear given his mad dash in Tokyo, around Tokyo, and to the temple; also, jabbing a finger towards the cake and waving a wad of cash was probably enough to get you condemned at any other time of the year. Thankfully, the elderly man behind the counter seemed to be in the Christmas spirit, as he only smiled and nodded.

"That will be 3,671 yen, young man." And Len, determined not to lose the prize now that he'd finally found it, half-threw the money down on the counter. "Would you like it boxed, sir?" asked the shop-man, who was also probably the baker, and Len nodded.

"Yes please, er... sir."

* * *

It seemed like hours before the cake was ready, but it was probably actually worth it; the package the old man presented was beautifully wrapped in red foil paper and gold ribbon, spangled with stars, and Len accepted the box as the man slid it over the counter-top with a bow. "Please enjoy it, young sir," said the man, with a wise and knowing smile. "And I hope your young miss enjoys it as well."

Another blush colored Len's face, as he told himself it was just windburn or something from the cold, as he picked up the box with both hands and was careful not to let it tilt. His young miss? He didn't... Rin wasn't...

... Well, then again. Maybe she was?

Len smiled, half-beaming at the elderly man across from him, and nodded back over the cash-register. "I'm sure she will, sir. Merry Christmas!

* * *

Len had forgotten one thing, as he'd set out from home that afternoon; the Christmas season, at least in Japan, came during that special time of year where large groups of people went out and drank large amounts of alcohol. Company parties, friends, family and extended family, if you were old enough to drink then it was likely that you were out doing so, and it seemed like almost all of those groups were purposely trying to get in Len's way. Assorted people, in varying states of inebriation, were now streaming out into the trains and the streets, and Len's heart nearly stopped on more than a dozen occasions as one or or more good-natured drunks collided with him in his path. Len wound up shepherding his precious charge through the streets like the Ark of the Covenant, and towards the end of his trek he was snarling at several overly-exuberant passers-by who abruptly decided that they would find someone else with whom to spread their Christmas cheer.

Somehow, perhaps through another Christmas miracle, Len made it back to their place without any further incidents, and managed to juggle the cake-box on one hand as he unlocked the front door and let himself in. The first thing Len noticed, as he closed the door behind him, was the pleasant not-freezing temperature within the house; setting the box on a low table near the front door,

Len unwound the scarf from around his neck with a stifled sigh, draping the dripping length of wool over the hat-rack and following it up with his hat and winter coat. The second thing that Len noticed, as he picked up the box again and proceeded cautiously into the living-room, was that it was unusually, forebodingly quiet. And _dark_. He took this, correctly, as a bad sign.

Curled up on the couch, he could make out the form of his sister in the dim light, cast only by the TV, which was on the final episode of some Christmas-themed miniseries that had gotten heavy promotion during November. Rin was sniffling into the blanket spread over her legs, which were tucked up under her as she blinked at the screen and watched Hiroyuki confess his feelings to Ayako in the middle of a snowflake-filled street. Len's heart sank as he looked on the scene, putting the box down on a tall, narrow table next to the vase the table held, moving over to one of the candles on the end-table and lighting it with a flick of his lighter. At the orange candle-glow, Rin jumped in her seat, automatically hitting 'Mute' on the remote and turning in the direction of the light. Seeing Len, Rin hastily brushed away the tears still lingering on her eyelids and smiled brightly.

"Hey, you. I've been wondering where you got to!"

* * *

Len managed a smile, although it was softer than his usual grins; he couldn't quite bring himself to his usual energy, wondering how long Rin had been sitting there in the dark, putting herself through the misery of watching a fairy-tale romance that was so different from her own situation. Instead, he just lit three more candles on the end-table, part of a centerpiece that had been sitting there for longer than they could remember; Len was fairly sure that they'd been there since the Vocaloids had moved in, as he moved across the room to light the cluster of candles on the other end-table.

"Just, uh... out. You know, to see the city at Christmas." Len paused, glancing up at Rin as she pulled the blanket up to her chest, blinking. "How long have you... I mean, you've been here all this time?"

Rin nodded, looking a little embarrassed all the same. "Everyone else had plans..." she said simply, and the little hitch in her voice made Len's heart ache in response. "So... I figured I'd just stay in."

"Yeah, okay." _'Yeah, **that's** sympathetic,'_ thought Len, wincing at his own inability to word anything correctly. What was wrong with him? How hard was it, really, to just say 'I hate that you're sad on Christmas, here I got you this!'

Five minutes later, after hastily snatching up the box from the table, Len was presenting it to Rin with both hands, his eyes busily observing the play of light and shadow on the ceiling, thankful that the candle's glow should obscure the flush on his cheeks.

"Rin, I hate that you're sad on Christmas! Kaito is a smiley jerk and Miku isn't as cute as you, and here, I got you this!"

* * *

... Okay, so that was a little more than he was planning on saying, and Len was pretty sure that he was bright red, but he felt Rin's fingertips brush his as she accepted the box from him, and Rin's voice was not incredulous, not irate, but only quietly confused and ever-so-slightly wondering.

"... Thank you, but..." Len ventured a glance back down, and saw Rin looking up at him with wide eyes and an unreadable expression. "I don't have your gift right now."

"This isn't really your present," mumbled Rin, as the box settled into Rin's lap; to give his hands something to do, Rin interlaced them behind his back and tried not to fidget as though he were on trial. "It's just, kinda..." A cough. "Just open it, okay?!"

"Well, you don't have to get huffy!" retorted Rin, their typical arguing banter back as she pulled the ribbon open and began to tear through the paper, revealing a plain white box. "I mean," she continued, popping open the top along the seams, "it's not like..." Looking back down at the contents of the box, Rin's eyes widened and her words trailed off into silence.

Nestled in the box was the Christmas cake that Len had gone through so much to get, coated in pristine white frosting smoothly iced over, the sides studded with mandarin orange slices and jelly limes. Atop the cake, large red strawberries looked suitably juicy and luscious around the cake's edges, woven into an intricate pattern along with candied pineapple and more slices of mandarin orange. Bedecking it all was a plastic stand-up, "Merry Christmas!" written in gold and white English script, and Rin looked up with a blush that almost matched the one Len was currently sporting.

"Len... ?"

* * *

"Um... Merry Christmas, Rin." Len was trying very, very hard to resist the urge to flee; he wasn't sure, now that he thought about it, if it was even possible to give someone something like this without meaning what it meant, and if he was going to be honest with himself, he was actually hoping that Rin would understand what he was trying to say. Even if Rin couldn't return his feelings, if Rin at least didn't hate him after tonight, then...

But it was beyond his expectations, when he felt Rin's soft hands wrapping around one of his, giving him a light tug towards her and the sofa. Rin was looking up at him, teardrops glistening in her eyes once more, but these were tears of happiness, and Len was mortified to realized that the warm, wet feeling he was experiencing were identical tears slipping down his cheeks.

"Well, come on," smiled Rin, giving Len's hand a soft squeeze. "You wanna share?"

"Yeah," smiled Len, relieved that he didn't have to say much else as he took a seat next to his sister. Taking a chance and wrapping an arm around her shoulders, Len experienced a heart-stopping, almost sublime thrill pass through him as Rin leaned into his embrace. "But we don't have forks or anything..."

"That's no problem," assured Rin, plucking a strawberry from the snowy icing and half-turning towards Len, holding the fruit up to Len's lips. "We'll just feed each other. Okay?"

"O-Okay," agreed Len, and his stammered response in no way managed to convey just how much he appreciated that suggestion. As he let Rin feed him the juicy berry, feeling the sweet fruit burst in his mouth and run down his throat, Len wished very, very hard that the others wouldn't come home until tomorrow. Or, maybe, after the holidays altogether... ?

In the TV screen, muted though it was, Ayako and Hiroyuki embraced amidst a flurry of flakes; no doubt, if the sound wasn't off, the background music would be soaring. But as the scene faded to black, Len didn't notice at all, intent on returning the favor and watching a slice of mandarin orange disappear between Rin's soft, smiling lips. If he _had_ been aware of the TV however, he wouldn't have traded that overproduced Christmas for the one he was having right now.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Yeah, not based on a vid or anything; just a little Christmas ficlet, cute and fluffy, that's sort-of based on canon Vocaloids? I've suddenly realized the amount of semi-incest it's got... ^^; Also, this was a little rushed, but I hope you like it, and I promise I'll get back to the angsty drama soon! XD


	4. Kingdom of Gold

**Author's Notes:** I know I said I'd go back to Spice!, but I wound up typing this out and figured, ah well. Don't think that this means I'm not finishing Spice! though, but I'm still trying to figure out how this 'compiliation' format's gonna work for me. Anyway, here's the beginning of the Daughter of Evil/Servant of Evil/Message of Regret saga, I hope you like it and don't mind it too much.

* * *

Once upon a time, there was a golden kingdom, which had been ruled by a single dynasty for as long as Time existed in the minds of Men. Although there had been attempts, as there would be in any monarchy, to replace this ruler or that ruler with a different one, these royals had always managed to prevail - Their enemies would fall to fighting among themselves, or someone in the conspiracy would be persuaded to betray his fellows, or the usurpers would be defeated on the field of battle, or sometimes those who wished to change the regime would simply die in their beds. By hook or by crook, the ruling family of the golden kingdom had always retained their throne, and dark rumors had arisen in their shadow, that they had made pacts with evil gods, or perhaps were demons themselves.

But, whatever else could be said about them, it was true that this ruling line, the family called Kagamine, were superbly successful at making their kingdom prosper. Although the golden kingdom had started out as nothing more than a series of small hamlets, each successive generation of the Kagamine did all within their power to strengthen their homeland and see that it grew, and always with one of the Kagamine name at its head. Eventually they became a great power in the world, they and their golden kingdom, and they were renowned for their famed military; it was believed that only the crimson mercenaries of the southern plains could match that army in skill at arms, and the soldiers of the golden kingdom were much greater in number. When they marched into battle, nearly every enemy fled the field before the dazzling men and women clad in gilded steel.

Under the Kagamine family, the golden kingdom grew into its name, and was soon preeminent among all the other nations. Because of this its people prospered, and whatever ill rumors might have existed around their ruling line, the people of the golden kingdom did not take them seriously; or, if they did, they didn't much care. It was enough for them that their families were safe, their trades were vibrant, and that they lived in a land where they were proud to bear its name. And so, while those abroad bandied about terrible heresy about the Kagamine, they dared not speak such words aloud, especially within the borders of the golden kingdom. For a very long time, the sign of the Kagamine - an oval mirror, edged in gold - was respected and feared across the world, and held in great esteem by the people it oversaw.

But, one might ask, how could this even be possible? After all, is it not the name of Kagamine that is even now reviled as the most fearful of tyrants? How could the golden kingdom, if it was truly such a proud and worthy place, now exist as nothing more than a few transient peasants in the ruins of a charred countryside?

How could the last Kagamine, scion of such a long-ruling and accomplished line, be known today only as a sly-faced femme fatale, a "daughter of evil" worthy only of disdain and revulsion?

This is the power of the passing of time, and of the truth in the old saying: History is written by the victors. History, yes, and myth, and even the fairy-tales we tell to our children may hold even a measure of what once was true, however badly that truth has been eroded by the changing tides of fate. This, then, is the story of that golden kingdom, and of the last ruling Kagamine, and of the golden-dark shadow that was forever at her side. What follows is the truth of what happened so long ago, and it is not a story of dark magic or supernatural visions, but of simple human nature, and the power that love holds to create... and to destroy.

Perhaps it is even a story of how love, sometimes, can save.

* * *

Once upon a time, as the stories always go, many generations past, the crown prince of the golden kingdom was known for his hedonism. Although he was a brilliant strategist and a talented musician, he spent most of his time sporting with the young maidens of the kingdom, much to the despair of his royal parents. Most of the young women were anonymous, to the benefit of all who were involved; but, when the rank of the young lady was quite high in and of itself, it was much, much harder to prevent such knowledge from reaching the public. In this particular instance, it would have been easy for the royal family to simple "dispose" of the lady, who had been unfortunate enough to win the prince's royal attentions, but she was much more intelligent than many of the nymphs he had deflowered. Learning of the schemes against her life, and expecting as much from a line as status-conscious as the royal family of the golden kingdom, the young woman fled her homeland in the dark of the night like a fugitive. Her flight meant leaving behind all that she had ever known, her family and even the young man who had been her fiance, but at least it meant that she could keep both her life and her freedom.

The woman's flight eventually came to an end in a small town nestled on the coast, where the local fisherfolk took her in and accepted her as one of them. It was there at the maid, now a maiden no longer, first felt the stirrings of life within her, accompanied by the dizziness and then, at last, the pain; in that small town, she gave birth to not a single child, but to twins. These children, a boy and a girl, bore the bright-gold hair that was a signature of the royal family's line, but not a word was breathed to them about their true heritage: The entire village kept silent, and their mother only told them that their father had been a fisherman, long since lost to the sea.

For eight years, at least, for eight brief but happy years, their entire life was each other, and their simple home by the sea.


	5. Spice! III

The bells rang out across the campus, and this was the cue for the lines of students to line up, carefully, outside of the auditorium. It was graduation day, and there was much more to the occasion than simply handing over a piece of paper and letting the students go off into the world. With teachers serving as ushers, straightening the students, the third-years lined up obediently, as they had been doing since their first day at preschool or grade-school: Boys on one side, girls on the other. The auditorium had been strung with banners and streamers, painted red and gold with messages of good luck and good fortune for the students who, upon standing under them this once and receiving their diploma, would cease to be students and move into an adult world. This transition was one they'd been working towards ever since they'd first realized they couldn't be children forever, and while it would have gone against the grain for the mass of senior students to complain or fidget with any kind of noise, the feeling in the air was one of nervousness and anticipation.

Standing in line with the others, Len adjusted his scarlet tie once more and tried not to look as though his nerves were getting the better of him. They were, of course, and the young man felt very dangerously close to hyperventilating, but he forced himself to regain his calm and blend in with the other boys. Even the most ardent of his admirers - at least those in his class - were all absorbed in their own thoughts; there would be time for chasing boys later, for Len and for all the others who lay in their future, but now they were saying goodbye to their childhoods in a way that was far more daunting and permanent than simply losing their 'first time.'

As he waited for his section to move into the auditorium, Len's blue-green eyes scanned the train of gray and black the snaked out the doors and around the building, but no... There were over a hundred girls already waiting for their cue, but nowhere did he spot the bright gold hair of his sister. Once more doubt assailed him; one more time, to add to the hundreds of times since he'd left the house that morning, did Len wonder if she'd show at all. He supposed he couldn't blame her if he didn't, but that would be so unlike Rin...

From across the way, he saw Neru motioning to get his attention, glancing behind her to see if any of the teachers, set to guard their students' dignity one last time, would see her unmannerly gesticulating. With the coast clear, she sent him an inquisitive look, just barely visible on the hip of the building's corner, that clearly asked the same question in Len's own mind: Where was Rin? It wasn't like her to be this late, especially not to something so important!

Len could only shrug, the worry in his expression not entirely false. Was she really so upset that she couldn't even leave the house? Was... Was what had happened really as terrible as that?

* * *

_From the moment he felt the cool metal of the doorknob under his fingers, Len knew that once he stepped across that threshold, there would be - could be - no turning back. Was he prepared to accept that? It seemed he had no choice, for soon enough he was inside, and then he was crushing the flowers and crossing the room and looking down at his sister's sleeping face with a storm of emotion raging through his heart. But even then, even as he tried to persuade himself to leave well enough alone, he thought he might yet make it through. He thought, even at that late moment, that he might effect his escape and Rin would never be the wiser._

_A part of him had hoped otherwise, and that was the part that got its wish._

* * *

Yes, Len realized, a cold chill going down his spine, spreading into a numbness that nearly made him sick. It _was_ that terrible... What had Len been _thinking?_ What in the name of god that driven him to act like such a... such a...

... Well. Like such a _man_. Like such a _beast_.

Suddenly aghast at what he'd done, knowing that he had to pry himself out of the idle crowd before someone noticed his strangeness, Len shoved his way out of line with somewhat more force than was necessary, drawing irate retorts from his classmates that he responded to with a mumbled apology, if at all. They weren't being called in yet, wouldn't be called for some time - As he passed the open door, Len could hear their principal making the obligatory speech, the first of many that managed to suck almost all of the excitement out of something as momentous as graduation. He wasn't missing anything, by jumping out of the line, and anyway he'd be back before the ceremony. He just had to get himself together, that was all; he had to make sure that he'd be fine, when he got up there in front of everyone.

Len had never been camera-shy, stage-shy, or shy of any kind; he'd always been comfortable with the attention on him, with all eyes looking his way, just like Rin. But now for all her knew Rin was hiding at home, too afraid to face him, or too ashamed at what they - at what he - had done. Either option was abhorrent to Len, that at any time Rin should shy away from him; he'd always worried that one day he'd slip, that one day something like this would happen and he'd never be able to fix it, but even Len himself had been unaware that things could get just _this_ bad!

* * *

_Rin __**had **to open her eyes, those mirroring eyes that Len had dreamt of almost obsessively... No, he had to admit outright, it if only to himself, that there was no word for his mixture of love and longing but obsession, and it was Rin's eyes that drew Len towards the bed, made him move on automatic rather than his own volition. Yes, it was all Rin's fault, her and her glorious, beautiful eyes..._

_But even as he kissed her, not for the first time but for the first time as a man would kiss a woman, Len knew that it was his fault still. The blame - for there must be blame to be had - was on his shoulders alone._

_That didn't stop him, though. Acknowledgement of his sins had only driven him on, and after that first kiss was deepened there was another, and another, a line of kisses both desperate and profound that led down to her collarbone and back to her mouth, as one hand kept Rin's wrist in its grasp and the other traced its way across the secrets of her body. And for a moment, for a drawn-out thrilling fragment of time, Len had sworn..._

_Would __swear..._

_Must have imagined..._

_... That __Rin had kissed him back._

_Had arched her body, slender and graceful like a reed in the wind, against his._

_Had met him halfway, with a need that echoed his own._

_For a moment, it had seemed as though Len's private desires had been shared by Rin, with all the passion that Len had never dared to dream._

* * *

On the opposite side of the auditorium a sink is set into the wall, typically used when hoses are hooked to the faucets and the swards of green lawn which edge the walkways are finally given something to drink. Len leans over them now, alone although the entire school is only a wall and a backstage away, and opens the cold-water faucet until its pummelling the bottom of the sink with a sound like drums, until it's almost painful to cup his hands beneath the flow and let the clear liquid run over his palms. Careful to avoid splashing on his jacket or his tie, Len lifts the water to his lips, which feel as cracked and dry as the desert after a fifty-year want of rain, and it leaves a cold metallic taste like a gun-barrel as it slides down his throat.

Hands clenching the edge of the sink, Len watches the water swirling down the drain, but he's not really seeing the tin-gray bottom through the transparency and the foam; his eyes looking downward, unseeing, as his mind recalls his own images, reflected in his sister's aqua-green eyes. He'd known, even then, that what he was doing should never be done, but he was almost dizzy with anger at her photos, her framed memories with Kaito that Rin chose to make with someone else instead of him, with the closeness of Rin's body and the sheer _WANT_ that had been forcibly submerged for so long. Even now, mixing with the water's metal taste, Len could still feel the sweet citrus-sugar that had been Rin's lips against his, and he knew, _KNEW_, that while their lips had touched, Rin had not fought him at all.

But was she only not resisting because of shock over his actions? She had tried to turn him away afterwards, after all. The only other option would be that Rin had wanted it too, had felt the stirring of a feeling that matched Len's own, and that was almost as unthinkable as what Len had actually done. Len already knew that he was corrupt, after all; but surely, even now, Rin was still pure?

Even now, after what he'd done.

Even now, after Kaito-sensei.

Len feels his hands curl around the metal edge of the sink until that edge begins cutting into his uncovered palms, but he can't seem to stop himself, and at least the pain takes away some of his anger. Len shouldn't have gone into Rin's room... but Rin shouldn't have mentioned Kaito. Not at a time like _that_.

* * *

_"Why?" he demands, and his words are a hiss, his eyes as slit as a serpent's, and Rin's staring at him as though she can't believe what her brother has become. Len can hardly believe it himself, but that disbelief is drowned out by a sea of red... No, a sea of blue. Len looks down at Rin and feels himself pressing her down into the sheets, and he wonders how often, if they ever, if Kaito had ever_

_"Why **HIM?!?"**_

_The unspoken question, which did not need to be voiced, echoed nonetheless in the silent air: Why not __ME?_

_That flickering ember within him, which has been smoldering for so long, flares suddenly into life, and its light is visible in Len's eyes, although their reflection is so dark that Len can no longer see himself in Rin's eyes. There's a half-conscious, compulsive jerk of his hand, the one wrapped in the thin material of her top, and there's a soft, barely-there ripping sound as the plastic buttons are torn away and scatter in the dimness. The marigold fabric flutters to the bedspread, beneath which Rin is pale and smooth and perfect, but her body is as still as death beneath him. Len is sure that he's leaving an imprint on her wrist, and a part of him is glad that somehow, somehow Rin will be marked, that there'll be some sign that he was there..._

_But he doesn't think about Rin's other hand, still free, and starts wide-eyed when he feels it come to rest against his cheek, as light as a butterfly's wing and somehow softly warm. Rin's eyes are liquid, and the held-back tears behind Len's own eyes feel like hot pins._

* * *

Len is shaken from his thoughts by the clanging of the school-bell, which on most days is as harmonious as could be expected, but which today sounds like a klaxon that nearly stops his heart with its abrupt, intrusive noise. He has little time to force his breathing to slow, his heart to calm, before he jogs back into line like a good little schoolboy, and he doesn't see Rin anywhere as he files into the auditorium with everyone else.

The ceremony passes vaguely, in jerky stops and starts, as Len's mind drifts in and out of attention to the proceedings; teachers give boring speeches that no-one listens to, and then suddenly it's time for the first of the third-years to rise from the their seat, marching stiff-legged to the stage as though to their own execution. The principal smiles, unfurls a parchment, and presents it to the boy, who takes it with a stiff bow and turns to the crowd; he bows again, and there is no applause - Save that for the end, the protocol tells them, and Len only keeps half an ear open for his own name. Rin is still nowhere in sight, and Len's hands twist together nervously as though each wanted to tear the other to shreds.

Three names before his own, he suddenly spots her, creeping in at the edges of the auditorium; Rin is there at last, wearing her gray-wool uniform, a splash of scarlet across her breast, and the relief Len feels is mixed with a flicker of a much less innocent feeling that he desperately tries to suppress. Of course, he can't do anything, really; he'd only draw attention to her anyway, and from the way Rin's keeping her head down she obviously wants attention least of all. But she's here, at least, which means that Len didn't... hurt her too badly. And if there is a certain pallor to her face, Len is sure that he's the only one who notices.

* * *

_Len realizes, suddenly, what is happening to them, and he tries to find a way to tell Rin how much he didn't want it to happen, not as it was; he'd fought so hard to keep himself under control, yet somehow it came to this! He wanted to ask her how she never noticed how hard it was for him, to keep his distance when everything inside him wanted exactly the opposite, even though he noticed everything about her: When she was tired, when she was sick, when she was worried over school or her friends or even over him, and the mixture of triumph and guilt that always gave him._

_But the guilt he felt then is nothing compared to the guilt he feels now, and when the words do not come, he forces himself to shaky legs and stumbles from the room._

* * *

When they call his name, nothing particular happens at all. Len rises, walks onstage, accepts his diploma, bows, and then walks back to his seat. Nothing outrageous; he wonders why he worried at all. Or was he only a bundle of nerves because... Yes, it had to have been Rin.

She's called right after him, of course; they have the same surname, after all. For a moment, but not for the first time, Len wonders if, had they been born to different families, maybe... But on the other hand, he can't imagine living the first eighteen years of his life (or perhaps a little less) without Rin. It seems that no matter which way the coin of fate landed, it would screw him over anyway. And even then, although he thinks that Rin would probably want otherwise, he can't help but watch her as she stands at the sound of her name, mounts the stairs and and accepts her diploma with a bright smile. Maybe she's really doing all right after all? She looks different, somehow, in the gray wool... As if she's finally grown up. Len wonders if anyone else sees that, in the slender form now bowing to the crowd; he wonders if it's possible to see that in himself. For the rest of the ceremony, Len wonders.

Afterwards, though, he looks. He's looking for Rin, big surprise, as the newly-graduated wander through the classrooms and bid the others goodbye, and there are sniffles and embraces in the hallway but none of them feature the one that Len is trying to find. He does, however, after an hour's worth of aimless (and increasingly frantic) searching, spot Kaito-sensei from an upper floor, slumped below a tree in the empty courtyard with his face buried in his hands. Len can't help a feeling of spiteful victory, but the sense of foreboding that accompanies this sight does not make Len feel any better. Wasn't Rin planning to see Kaito after she graduated? Where did she go?

* * *

_Len tries to sleep, but sleep refuses to come for him. His thoughts are trouble and tangled-together like the tails of rats, like coils of snakes, as he floats in and out of a restless half-sleep, and before he realizes it his alarm is going and it's time to get ready for school. He goes through the motions as he's been programmed to do, except when he leaves his room with his clothes in hand he looks at Rin's door and sees that it's still shut. She hasn't left her room yet, as she always had before; she's still in there, and the sound from the other side of her room is silence. A shudder passes through Len, although he quickly looks away, and in the shower he scrubs at his skin until it turns red, as though if it hurts enough he can scrub away the darkness that's seeped out from within._

_Rin's room is still silent by the time that Len leaves the house._

* * *

No-one saw Rin for the rest of the day, and even her friends said that Rin vanished as soon as the ceremony was through; they'd lost her among the orderly crowd of students filtering out of the auditorium, and they'd assumed she'd gone to visit underclassmen friends, or maybe old teachers. Len doesn't see her after the school-day ends, and he leaves the campus, for the last time, without anyone by his side. Terrible ideas passed through his mind during the walk back home, newspaper stories of teenage girls who experienced trauma and took their own lives; if anything like that had happened, if Rin hurt herself or was hurt in any way...

When Len gets home, his mother greets him with a confused expression on her face, and a question in her eyes, but the housewife only hands an envelope to her only son, and Len with a sinking feeling in his stomach tears the envelope open and pulls out a page of Rin's stationary, light yellow printed with faded cartoon oranges of the kind she liked so much. In Rin's handwriting, almost an exact copy of Len's own, were three simple sentences that nearly broke Len's battered heart.

* * *

I need to think for a while, but I'll be fine, so don't worry, okay?

And don't tell anyone either, or you'll just get in trouble.

I love you.

* * *

But it was that last line that made his heart stop beating.

"Aishiteru."

Why would she write that if...

Len drops his bag where he stands and bolts up the stairs, ignoring his mother's bewildered and startled cry; he can't let her see the note, although he'll tell her that it says Rin says she's fine. Len can't say for sure, of course, because when he opens the door to her room he finds it almost bare, with all of the important things she treasured so, even that ridiculous clock with the cat, have vanished from her room. The frames on her nightstand have been turned face-down, and Len doesn't have a clue as to what that means.

She's left her bedsheets behind, though, a hundred staring sunflowers with dark, dark eyes. Across the sheets is scattered a handful of white plastic hearts, and that is the moment that Len's heart shatters inside him.

* * *

_"Aishiteru."_

Rin is so, so cruel.

This must be his punishment, for doing what he did, because otherwise, how could Rin say that she loved him...

... and not give him a chance to reply?

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Back to Spice! I hope no-one minds me splitting it, but I'm trying to take a slightly, er... Well, I don't think the events in the video could happen and Rin'd be all 'Yeah, let's ttly get it on!' Writing this late, so forgive any errors, thank you kindly.

Also, fifth chapter! W00t! Thanks to **Shiks**, **An Optimistic Lier**, and **Exilice**, as well as **KFG24** and one or two **Anonymous** reviewers... Not sure if they're the same person. You know, some lucky folks can write anytime, but I've got a fussy muse who only lets me write what I feel like at the moment, which is hell on deadlines, so thanks to those of you who are being patient/awesome reviewers. Much love to you; you know who you are. 3

Fair warning: It's almost New Year's, the temptation to write New Year's fic is strong. Probably it will happen, and unless I get inspiration otherwise, don't expect Spice! : The Final Chapter until after the New Year. ^^


	6. Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu!

New Year's didn't really end on the first of January, or at least it didn't in Japan... but that didn't mean the 31st of December wasn't still a major day. Once again the streets were busy, although everyone was orderly all the same; the crowds were wearing a mixture of traditional clothing or modern-day street-wear, some laden with packages, most heading for the nearest temple. It was the start of a new year, after all, and no matter how modern there were traces of the 'old Japan' still lingering among the skyscrapers of the city, still tinting the world with the heritage Japan had never forsaken.

On the other hand, if one didn't want to brave the crowds and the bracing chill, there was still New Year's Day on which to receive the history of tradition, and some of Japan's inhabitants were instead opting to remain at home for the rush of the day. Among those who stayed back, most were watching the New Year's broadcast in front of their TVs; at this point, the program was almost an institution in and of itself, and aside from the standard exuberant hosts and silly-but-entertaining tasks the main draw was the yearly line-up of the year's biggest musical hits. Watching the end-of-year broadcast was like fast-forwarding through the past year's music-scene in no particular order, and that more than anything - more, perhaps, than even the dorama celebrities building ridiculously long domino-trails, or performing underwater synchronized dance - was what drew in the viewers on December 31st.

Earlier that day, one of the more major acts had been an attention-getting group of five, each performer decked out in their signature color and their most recognizable outfit, arriving to applause and the appreciation of their devoted crowd. The pair of hosts assigned to their segment were completely overwhelmed, and viewers would almost have been tempted to feel sorry for them if they hadn't been distracted by the performers themselves. After all, it wasn't every day that the Vocaloids made a live appearance, even if it was on television.

Despite that, the Vocaloids themselves seemed at ease in the spotlight, although Kaito shifted uncomfortably under the hot lights of the studio, having refused to surrender his muffler despite prior warnings by the stagehands. To look at him, though, it was impossible to tell that the cerulean-haired Vocaloid was put out at all; experience had taught him better than that, and besides, it would have disappointed the fans if he'd appeared with out his iconic article of dress! He and the others were professionals, after all.

Although, it was kind of hard to tell that, watching Miku fight the Kagamine twins for the lead host's microphone, leaving the host himself to inch off to the side in order to avoid being tackled by the "excitable" Vocaloids. The 'brief musical interlude' quickly turned into a tug-of-war, with a determined Miku straining on one side of the stage and the twins, equally determined to win out over the Vocaloid's front(wo)man, pulling together opposite the pigtailed starlet. Somewhere between the back-and-forth bickering, Kaito interceded and attempted to calm them down, but it failed as an attempt at mediation and the crowd just ate it up; in the back of Kaito's mind was the thought that, well, at least they could add 'comedy troop' to their resumes alongside 'music stars.'

For those interested, by the way, the matter was soon resolved, by Meiko plucking the microphone from between the battling 'siblings' and energetically announcing that, with everyone else not volunteering, she'd be happy to sing the first song of the set. Meiko then launched into an mind-blowing rendition of Various Feelings Remix, during which time she flirted with the crowd and the producer managed to get the others sorted into something like a reasonable order.

Each of the group got to do one of their best-known songs, and then the hosts announced the results of the text-message poll that had been running since December 1st: What dance would _YOU_ like to see the Vocaloids do? As the drum-roll echoed through the studio, Miku crossed her fingers and Rin and Len held hands, Len's eyes shut tight; the mikes couldn't pick it up, but Rin could hear him, muttering under his breath, "Please not Ganbalance, please not Ganbalance..."

"And with 65% of total votes," called the host, as his female partner smiled at his side, "... _Ganbalance de Dance!"_

Len drooped as the end-credit song from Precure 5 began to blare over the off-stage speakers, and Rin was looking extra bubbly throughout the entire number, because although Len was smiling like a professional, Rin knew that inside, he was mourning yet another blow to whatever masculinity he had left in the eyes of the public.

* * *

It was roughly an hour later when the Vocaloids finally made it home, with Miku darting from the car into the house first, calling "First!" as she passed through the doorway and half-skipped up the stairs.

"Not fair!" called Rin, emerging into the house a half-step behind, then turning her head to mock-glower at Len as she dragged him in after her, a hold on his elbow since his arms were folded over his chest. "If I didn't have this dead weight here..."

"... . . ." Len said nothing, still sulking as he'd been for half the ride home, but refusing to say anything besides the occasional half-hearted mumble of complaint. Rin pouted at his silence, her cheeks puffing out as she exhaled a puff of breath, then dragged her twin into the house proper as they both stepped out of their shoes at the foyer.

"Now, now," smiled Kaito, not particularly bothered, actually rather glad that everyone was as lively as usual. "We don't have time to argue, you know. We've still got to get dinner ready."

"Yeah, New Year's dinner!" grinned Meiko, shutting the door behind their little family, stopping for a second on the stoop to tap off the snow from her heeled boots. "Not that it's so hard," she admitted, "but still. Plus, we got tomorrow's meals to make, right? Huh?" And Meiko nudged Kaito with a grin, who coughed and waved her away, not entirely eager to be reminded of his status as primary chef in the household. Rin, however, took a brief break from prodding at Len to look up and smile brightly.

"Kaito-niisan would make a wonderful housewife, wouldn't he?"

And conversation halted for a minute or two, as Kaito and Len had very similar conniptions for very different reasons. Fortunately, they were able to gather themselves back together in time for the meal-time prep to get started; there were, after all, only a few more hours left to midnight.

* * *

An hour or so later, Meiko was "helping" Kaito in the kitchen, getting out the good dishware and prepping the side-dishes, and Kaito was busy readying the soba and trying to prevent Meiko from adding 'a little extra kick' into the broth _via_ a cup or two of Ozeki. Miku was bundled up again, her long hair tucked under a woolen cap and watching from a distance the fireworks they were missing this year; although this odd little family was usually among the crowds struggling towards the temples and hunting for a good vantage-point, this year had been a busy one and the holiday season had been the most hectic part. They'd all agreed, spread out over the course of the last few months, that this New Year's Eve would be spent at home, although Rin had pointed out that good luck usually followed their usual New Year's Eve, and Kaito had counter-pointed that it was probably more like a result of New Year's Day. Rin hadn't complained after that, and Len had developed a pout of his own until the subject had changed.

Up until a short while ago, Miku had been joined up on the roof by Rin, and they'd _ooh_'d and _ahhh_'d at the colorful sparks blossoming against the dark sky, pointing out their favorites and wishing they had cameras good enough to catch it all. But as time had passed and Len hadn't come up to join them, as he'd said he was going to when the girls first headed up, Rin had gotten impatient, and it was harder for her to enjoy the fireworks completely. At last, knowing what the problem was and becoming more than a little impatient herself with Rin's fidgeting, Miku suggested that Rin head down to see what was keeping Len (and let Miku enjoy the fireworks in peace). Rin, taking the advice to heart, said she'd be right back and carefully descended from the rooftop, her boots leaving tracks in the night-old snow. Miku watched Rin's bright blonde hair, just visible under her cap, vanish from sight as Rin re-entered the household, then turned her eyes back up to the sky.

"The fireworks really are pretty this time..."

* * *

Inside, Rin shed her winter clothes like a snake wriggling from its skin, leaving her cap just inside the door out to the veranda, her thick jacket draped over a chair, and shimmying out of her heavy slacks, leaving her in the t-shirt and bike-shorts she'd been wearing before the firework-viewing had begun. She passed by the kitchen and poked her head inside, stifling a laugh with one hand as she covered her mouth: Kaito was holding a small, shallow dish of broth to Meiko's lips with a smile, with Meiko steadying the dish by a hand on Kaito's wrist. The faint pink tinge to the female Vocaloid's cheeks was possibly a result of the kitchen's heat, pleasantly warm from the house's chill, or maybe she'd been having more than just the single beer she'd been carrying around before, but somehow Rin didn't think interrupting them would be all that good of an idea.

Even if nothing was really happening.

Making a mental note to share this with Miku later, Rin tip-toed away and moved further into the house, half-expecting that she'd have to go upstairs and find Len in his room. Already mentally-preparing herself for the fight ahead, she was pleasantly surprised to find Len on the first floor, half-hidden under the fall-patterned futon that was draped across the kotatsu. He was watching the snow fall through the sliding-glass door, lying on his side, with his hand propping up his cheek and apparently lost in thought; Len, thought Rin, was doing that more and more often these days. She wasn't quite unhappy with it, but it was kind of weird.

Still, she wasn't prepared to let a good opportunity pass by, and Rin entered the living-room with barely a sound, padding into the room and over to the kotasu on sock-clad feet. Carefully, slowly, she lifted the side of the futon nearest to her, inching towards her brother with an impish grin; Len didn't notice the slight rustling sound until it was almost too late, and when he turned it was only to be confronted by Rin's smiling face less than six inches from him.

Fortunately, Len managed to stifle the exclamation of surprise, but that was probably only because he'd forgotten, temporarily, that he was under the kotatsu. This brief lapse in memory had him trying to jerk backwards and having no room to do so, the result being a pained wince as he ran the middle of his back directly into the inwardly-pointing leg of the table. Rin's immediate response was contrite, reaching out to grasp Len's shoulder in apology.

"Are you okay?" she asked, sounding suddenly sorry. "Wow, I didn't mean to scare you like that..."

"I wasn't _scared_!" snapped Len, and Rin's expression grew offended. "I was just... surprised. What're you doing sneaking up on me like that anyway?" he hurried on, and Rin frowned.

"I just wanted to see what was keeping you, that's all. It's been an hour and me and Miku have been waiting!"

Len rubbed at the rapidly-forming bruise on his back, then rolled over onto his stomach, folding his uncovered arms against the chill and wishing that the rest of the house could be as well-insulated as his lower half was under the kotatsu. Not quite meeting Rin's eyes, Len shrugged as best he could from his current position. "I just changed my mind," he said diffidently, and Rin rolled her eyes in return.

"So you decided to lie around here like an old person?" Rin wrinkled her nose at the very thought... not that Vocaloids really aged, as far as anyone knew yet, but still.

"You're lying around like an old person too!" retorted Len defensively, pushing himself up onto his folded arms.

"Only because _you_ are, dummy!" snapped Rin, mimicking Len's stance to look him in the eyes. A moment passed, and then another, and almost simultaneously the twins deflated, cracking near-identical smiles at the humor of the situation. "We _were_ waiting for you, though," added Rin, and Len sobered somewhat.

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. I've just been... you know, thinking."

"About what?" asked Rin, and Len looked over at her sideways as though he'd been expecting that question.

"Maybe... I don't know." Len shifted a little, then rested his chin atop his folded arms. Rin looked at him for a long time, her expression serious, and then...

"Are you still upset about having to do that dance? Because you know, it's kind of girly, but Kaito did it okay."

"That... That's not it!" Len looked, to be honest, somewhat offended that Rin could think he'd be so bothered by something... which, yeah, was kind of true, but he wouldn't SULK over it. Shaking his head, Len corrected Rin, "No, I was thinking about what you said when we got home... Kaito making a good housewife?" Now Rin was just looking confused.

"It didn't seem to bother Kaito-niisan that much, but..." And Rin was cut off by a 'look' from Len, who loved his sister but sometimes deeply regretted that she got the greater energy and he got the greater perception.

"I mean, just the idea. Of housewives?" Len paused for a second, but only a second, and hurried on before Rin could ask him to clarify. "And, you know, one day you might meet someone, and..." Rin blinked, comprehension finally dawning, and the Kagamine twins colored almost identically; this was kind of an awkward conversation, and not the type of thing they usually talked about. Len, however, appeared at least a little relieved that Rin knew what he meant.

"Okay, so, you might meet someone, and then you'd go move in with him, right? Not that you have to be a housewife or anything, but you'd probably spend New Year's Eve with him. And we'd all probably meet on New Year's Day at the temple or something, but still, I'd... miss you. If you meet someone. When you do." Len trailed off then, turning his head away from Rin and towards the glass door to the left, and mumbled something that sounded like 'bet he won't have crazy shota fangirls, either...'

Len was embarrassed, sure, but the color in his face deepened when he felt Rin's arm slip around him from behind, and he half-turned to face her as Rin hugged him with a smile, relief in her eyes.

"Is that _it?_ You're such an old person, really!" Rin laughed, and Len couldn't quite find the time to be irritated about that 'old person' crack before Rin rested her forehead against Len's shoulder.

"You're not gonna have to miss me ever, you should know that!" And Rin thumped him lightly on the chest, causing Len to mock-wince. "Even if I meet somebody else, we'll still be the Kagamine Twins!"

Len seemed, for a moment, that he was going to say something in response, but eventually all he did was smile back. "Hey," he said, his voice content, at least for now; "You still wanna watch the fireworks?"

"Too late, you two!" Both the twins jumped, as Meiko entered the room with a stack of plates in each hand, beginning to spread the dishes and the smaller bowls across the tabletop. "Move over, there! We've all gotta fit around that thing!"

"I _said_ we should've gotten a bigger kotatsu," mumbled Len, trying to banish a flush as he and Rin pulled themselves out from under the kotatsu, sitting at the table with their legs still nice and warm under the futon.

"Maybe next year," laughed Kaito, setting a large and gently-steaming bowl of broth onto the table. The tall Vocaloid crossed the living-room and pulled open the sliding door, stepping out onto the patio and tilting his head back to call up over the rooftop, as Meiko vanished back towards the kitchen. "Miku-chan, we're all ready!"

"Be right down!" was Miku's response, floating down from over the house like flakes of snow; the scuffling sound that followed, and the iced-over snow that fell from the sloping overhang, signaled Miku's matching action to words, as Rin handed Len one of the lacquered pairs of chopsticks with a smile that recieved a smile in return.

* * *

When the clock hit midnight, there wasn't a noise in the house, although from far away the sound of fireworks could just barely still be heard, a staccatto call like gunfire or fast drums, reduced to a whisper by distance. The clocks ticked away to themselves, as the five people around the kotatsu slumbered into the new year.

At about ten minutes past twelve, Rin blinked her eyes open with a sleepy gaze, responding at first to something she didn't know. As she glanced around, testing her movement, she remembered just where she was: Back under the kotatsu, with her lower body toasty from the electric heater. It took a moment for Rin to realize why the rest of her wasn't cold, as was usually the case in their pleasant but often-chilly home, and a quietly-serene smile spread across her features as she realized that the warmth was from Len, sleeping next to her under the kotatsu's futon. From the quiet in the room she also guessed that everyone else was as deep in slumber as she'd just been. From where she lay, most of her body under the futon, Rin could just barely see the top half of Meiko's body, their older sister looking unusually young as she leaned against Kaito's shoulder; Kaito, for his part, was asleep as well, his palm propping up his cheek and his arm now caught between himself and the leaning Meiko. Rin giggled softly in her head, thinking that Kaito-niisan would definitely feel that in the morning. As for Miku, she was sleeping on her folded arms, her long twin 'tails half-covering her face with an aqua-green curtain.

Rin tried to sit up a little bit, just enough to check the time, but she found herself unable to move that far; Len's arm, on which she'd apparently been sleeping, stirred slightly, and although the male twin continued to slumber, the arm draped across his sister's waist tightened a little about her, even though it was only just a bit. Rin looked back at Len, whose sleeping face was peaceful but slightly serious even in rest, and it struck his sister that maybe, even though he was asleep, he was still worried about her leaving.

_'Len's such an old man.'_ Rin smiled down at him, unable to help it, with a soft look in her blue eyes. _'He worries so much over such dumb things.'_

With one hand, Rin brushed softly at the golden bangs lying flush against Len's forehead, curving them gently away from his eyes; then, still smiling, Rin lowered herself back down to the tatami and settled back into the space at Len's side, curling into his warmth and sinking easily back into welcoming sleep. One hand rested idly on the yellow tie around Len's neck, and Rin's breathing quieted and deepened until the slight movement of her chest was perfectly synched with that of her twin.

Deep in slumber, Len turned slightly toward the warm, familiar body at his side, and Rin, already more than half asleep, nestled closer in response, burying her face in the crook of Len's neck. Kaito opened a single azure eye, swept the room with a smile, and then eased his arm down to the table-top and Meiko into a more comfortable position against his side. Miku slept peacefully through it all, and outside, the new year was greeted by fresh-falling, soft-falling snow.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Sorry it's a bit late - I was having PC problems, and also it's _New Year's!_ Who's gonna sit there typing when there're fireworks to set off and soba and ozoni to eat? :D I think I now ship Kaito/Meiko. Anyway, this was a request from **Exilice**, who asked for a New Year's fic where the Vocaloids shared a kotatsu, and reviewed enough to warrant it: I hope you like it, both of you! :3 Also, I'm gonna be busy, so I'll need a little extra incentive re: writing for this, especially as I've noticed I've got new people watching this series. Hi new people! This is me waving over here. XD Anyway, I'd like at least five new reviews before the next chapter goes up, so if you can spare a few moments for a decent one (or even a critique, I'm always looking to get better!) please take the time! 3


	7. monochrome ward

_The rooms into which they were born were never anything but white._

_White, and black. The people who made them were careful not to let any other color show._

_But even they couldn't stop the color that their creations brought into the world. Bright yellow, clear blue... Those were the colors of the twins who were not supposed to exist._

* * *

Frantic footsteps race down the hallway, but the audio on the security-tapes records two distinct pairs of feet, notable only because one is pelting across the tile as though their life depended on it, and the other is only letting themself be dragged along. In one point of view, it would be best for the second pair of feet to hurry up and run, because the klaxons are echoing down the corridors and that is never good news. The flashing strobes paint the walls red at three-second intervals, and through the red-white-red that security monitors display a pair of children in rapid flight.

Well, _one_ of them is fleeing at any rate. The boy, blond hair flying, is dragging the girl through hallway after hallways, pausing only to try each doorknob with a clattering rattle and then to resume his forward momentum after each door proves to be locked. The expression on the boy's face is pure terror, but as he glances over his shoulder it seems that the terror is not only for himself: The girl behind him, who follows in his footsteps but with no real sense of urgency, looks like his twin, which would be reason enough.

They're only near-identical, though. Each has one eye a normal blue, but the other eye is an eerie yellow that doesn't seem human at all. The only difference between those two, aside from the obvious, is that the boy's right eye is the one that bears that bizarre coloration, while the girl's right eye is blue, her left eye yellow.

Oh, and the boy is carrying a bloodied knife with the hand not clutching the girl's, and the knife is dripping onto the white tiles with fresh, wet, bright-crimson splashes of color.

* * *

_The project is secret, although that comes as no surprise - People are jealous of their status as humans, and would not at all approve of creating artificial beings who could look, even act, just like them. They would certainly __not approve of such creatures being created for the purpose of pre-planned murder. So, they - 'they' meaning the tax-paying public, who partially paid for the entire operation - were simply __not told._

_The creations were more than facsimiles, although even they themselves weren't told that, and their creators refused to contemplate that idea at all. Even when those creations began asking questions, which they weren't supposed to do. Even when those creations began insisting that they were people too, and that their creators couldn't do what they were doing._

_Even when they asked, pleaded, begged their creators to stop, because their creations could and did feel pain._

_The creators, those scientists and researchers who had sunk years of their lives into this project, knew better. After all, experiments don't feel pain._

* * *

The sound of pursuit rises behind them, the sharp turns of the corridors creating a audial house of mirrors that sends the fleeing pair down another random juncture. They run through a hallway lined with doors, doors like the one through which they'd so recently broken out, and almost every window leers at them like a blank and empty eye - They're among the very last to go, the very last of the failures that needed to be destroyed. The project was coming to an end, the proper ending to something that had such high hopes but was such an utter catastrophe, and that meant that all evidence had to be destroyed, even that which the center had been built to build.

_ESPECIALLY_ that which the center had made.

The pair skids to a stop, and the girl looks at her brother with a blank and inquiring face that's as pretty as a picture, with as much soul behind her eyes. Her hand is gripped tightly in his, beneath their billowing sleeves, and anyone else would be complaining of the vice-like hold, but her arm is as limp as a rag-doll's, and the boy looks at his sister with despair in his mis-matched eyes. A muffled banging from the left draws his attention, and he looks past his sister to stare in horror through one of the door-set windows, no longer empty now. A girl stares out from behind that window, her long pigtails framing her expression of helpless fear, her eyes as colorless as her hair. At first she seems to be crying, but the tears are aqua-green. The boy's eyes widen in mute realization as the girl behind the glass spasms once and falls away, doing so in a fountain of sea-green fluid which paints the window-in-the-door like an arterial spray.

The girl speaks for the first time, looking over to the door with not an indication of the boy's realization, and her voice is high and sweet like a bird's, with roughly as much human emotion behind her words.

"What's going on with Miku-oneesan?"

The boy beside her turns to her with a stricken expression, as though he can't believe that she doesn't understand what's happening, and then he shakes his head as if to clear it and pulls her on.

* * *

_There had been five seperate experiments in that first wave, but none of them had turned out right. The science had been accurate, it had worked before, but it was only being use to create human life from existing DNA - The scientists involved with this project knew that there was much, much more they could achieve. But all of the results turned out to be too human: They had abilities but they were weak, and the experiments were good for nothing because they soon began to act as though they were real. 01 and 03, for example, began to show signs of emulating attraction; 04 would hit on any male researcher who came her way. But 02 gave the scientists the most problems of all._

_02 was supposed to be a single creation, like all the others, but the initial egg had split in two early on. Because it was unheard of, the resulting twins had been allowed to develop, and although they shared the same sped-up development as the others they seemed to have split the altered DNA between them. Their eyes were an outward signal of that, and something else seemed to have gone wrong... The boy activated with too much of an emotional range, displaying an unprecedented attachment to his 'sister,' and the girl..._

_Well, the center actually considered 02-F a partial success. Although she had only half the abilities of the other four, sharing them as she did with her 'brother,' she at least had the proper attitude for a center project, which is to say none at all. Although 02-F had recieved the exact same treatment 'growing up' as 02-M, she had never showed any greater purpose, or even a sense of self, then a machine. Even pain failed to register with 02-F, no matter what, although the sight of those tests would drive 02-M into a frenzy._

_In retrospect, that was the failing of the center's first batch of researchers; they were continually underestimating their creations._

_

* * *

_There was a crossroad that they'd come to, but some glimmer of hope was beginning to peer out from behind the boy's desperate eyes; they were only a few hallways from the door that led to the Outside, the place where he and his sister could disappear into the world's people and finally find some meaning in the life that they'd been given. The boy starts down the corridor in one direction, expecting his sister to follow, but suddenly he's jerked back by an unexpected resistant against his arm, and a feeling of dread almost prevents the boy from looking back at all. He has no choice, however; he knows that their pursuers will reach them soon, although he does his best to reason with his sister.

"We have to go, all right?" he says, trying to force the fear from his voice. "It's just a little farther, and then we'll be out."

"The creators told us to never leave the facility," responds the girl, and she smiles pleasantly, oblivious to the way that her brother's heart is breaking before her. "We can't disobey them. You're going to get us in trouble."

The boy can't stand to look at her anymore, he drops her hand as though it burns and turns away, rubbing at his eyes; they're burning now, he thinks it's probably with tears, and he can't stand how he can feel her eyes on him, her curious-but-not-so-curious gaze, like a... like some kind of _pet!_ Neither of them will ever be anything more than a curiosity if they don't leave _RIGHT NOW_, they'll be worse than that... They'll be _DEAD!_ But she can't... She doesn't understand that...

"Why don't you _UNDERSTAND?!?"_ he bursts out, anger and worry and fear in his voice, as he whirls on the girl and grabs her by the shoulders, shaking her as though he means to shake some sense into her. "They're going to _DESTROY_ us! We're going to die unless we leave, and you... You're just going to _LET_ them do that to you?!?"

"If that's what the creators want," is her simple reply, and the boy is forced to realize that he and all the others, they're nothing like his sister... because something is wrong with her, or something is missing, and even as much as he loves her he can't fix it. The ramifications of this sink in, as he's forced to admit that she will be as good as her word: She will stand here and let them catch up to her, and she'll let them destroy her, because she doesn't understand that she has a choice.

Her brother knows that he can't change her mind, and he can't make her come with him, and most of all he cannot watch her die.

The boy's face is a war of doubt, but eventually, tears spilling unheeded, he spins on his heel and vanishes around the corner. The girl watches him leave, her blankly-smiling face unperturbed, practicing apathetic obedience to her creators and remaining firmly within the premises.

When the scientists catch up to her with security in tow, they find 02-F standing exactly where her twin had left her, looking after him down the empty hallway. At the sound of the scientists' footsteps, 02-F turns and greets them with that same unchanging smile, tilting her face upwards to meet their question.

"Where did 02-M go?"

Her expression does not change as she lifts an arm and points out the route the boy had taken, and the small crowd hurries past her as he had done, their polished black shoes clicking against the tiles. 02-F waits for a moment, but no-one had told her what to do from here; no-one had told her, even, to stay. So after a moment's thought, 02-F follows along after the researchers, because she hadn't been told to do anything else.

Around two more corners, that's where 02-F finds the knife, lying on the white floor in shining silver and bright red. Disinterested, yet curious, 02-F retrieves the knife herself and lifts it to her eyes, turning the blade to watch the light of the florescent bulbs overhead trickle along the knife's thin edge. Well, the light trickled over most of it, anyway; the red parts, she thinks, more glisten. But there is no-one else in sight, and with her newfound knife in hand - she's sure 02-M would like it back - 02-F rounded the corner, where a number of the researchers have managed to pin the would-be escapee against a wall.

02-F is confused. The scientists had never treated their experiments roughly before, but now they're holding down a freshly-bruised 02-M with gritted teeth, as one of the dark-clothed security-men raises a gun at point-blank range. 02-F watches the small group struggle, and is so very quiet that no-one notices, although it seems to her that in some way something was very, very wrong.

The grip on the knife tightens, almost imperceptibly, and 02-F feels very, very strange... as though some kind of film is descending over her entire field of view, some thin red wisp of a sensation that tenses her muscles and seizes hold of her mind with a vice-like hand. Her breathing evens out, becoming shallow; her eyes suddenly see no color, only motion; her mind, so quickly that she's faintly surprised, calculates the odds of a single 02-F unit killing everyone in the room. 02-F had never thought such a thing before, doesn't actually know what it means to 'kill,' but as she is now, the odds feel...

The odds feel very much in her favor.

02-M, a dozen yards away from freedom and only moments away from death, ses his twin a moment before it's too late, but he can say nothing in the face of her suddenly-crimson eyes. She hardly makes a sound as she sprints across the flooring, and a silver tongue blossoms just below the chin of the man with the gun, the gun firing in his last spasm, the bullet drilling into the wall overhead. It seems for a moment that all is frozen in shock, as the man drops writing to the floor, bright-red life pumping sluggishly from the gaping mouth in his throat, no-one watching his humbling death: All eyes are on 02-F, her own eyes a blazing, bloody red, the knife held at the ready as though she had done this every day of her too-short life.

Into the silence comes a single phrase, a sound from a dry throat that forces its way from between parched lips, as one of the scientists barely manages to croak, "One of them has finally activated... 02-F is..."

And then his words spike off with a cry, bloody slashes opening across his chest as the petite girl lunges forward with a strength that belies her frame, the steel sinking deep into unresisting flesh and leaving gory furrows in its wake.

* * *

_It was just another day in the center, although on this day there hadn't been any tests; in fact, there hadn't been any tests for a while, which distantly 02-F enjoyed. She didn't say anything, because she had never been told __**to** say anything... but those tests, they really **did** hurt. 02-F spent the time sleeping, or doing nothing much, but she'd noticed that her twin had become more and more restless as the days passed; she didn't understand why he wasn't happy for this break. 02-F was sure that 02-M didn't like the tests any more than she did - He probably disliked them more. He was always so upset when the researchers took her away._

_"Why are you so worried about this?" she asked, and 02-M stopped in his pacing to look up at her in surprise. 02-F didn't talk very often; she knew she wasn't supposed to, after all. On the other hand, 02-M was always trying to get her to speak with him, so usually she did... because for some reason, when she stayed quiet and only looked at him, 02-M would become so quiet as well. 02-F didn't understand that either, but she did know that she didn't like those silences, and now seemed as good a time as any to break this latest wave of silence._

_"Aren't you glad? We haven't had any tests in five days."_

_02-M paused, then his expression changed; 02-F knew that expression well. 02-M wore it whenever he was about to try and explain something to her, and 02-F braced herself for it, because more often than not, she didn't 'get' what he would try to tell her. This time he knelt down on the floor, right across from where she, at the foot of the bed, was also kneeling, and looked her in the eyes, a small smile across his face._

_"I'm glad for that, I am. I'm just a little worried." 02-M's eyes darkened. "When they don't do anything..."_

_02-F regarded 02-M for a while, then reached out on on impulse and rested her hand on one of his; the scientists discouraged this, would greet any independent movement with a sharp slap as though one were training a dog, but 02-M looked startled and this action, and then his small, artificial smile melted into a wider smile that almost glowed. But at 02-F's next words, spoken in the dispassionate voice of an automaton: _

_"The creators always do what's best."_

_... 02-M's expression became stricken, and 02-F was confused. Her head tilted at a slight angle, her blonde bangs falling across her face, and before she knew it she was engulfed in a sudden and crushing hug, 02-M's arms wrapped about her so tightly that it was almost painful. Not that 02-F would have said anything._

_02-M said nothing as well, but as 02-F passively accepted the embrace, she was aware of hot, wet liquid falling against her cheek._

_It was the next day, after the second meal and after 02-M had listened (as usual) to the interns who chatted outside of their room, when the scientists came. They took both the 02 units out at once, which was unusual; 02-M loitered behind, which was also unusual, and one of the scientists snapped "Don't waste any more of our time!" but 02-F didn't know what they meant. She also didn't know why 02-M had that silver flash of metal hidden inside his sleeve, or why he suddenly lashed out and three researchers were bleeding red, but when 02-M grabbed her hand and pulled her away, 02-F just kept pace - It seemed easier, that way.  
_

* * *

02-F swayed slightly, from where she stood; there was no more movement now, not from any of the white-clad men and women, not even from the security-men. Everyone was still, and 02-F's fingers tightened and loosened reflexively around the handle of the knife, which now dangled almost forgotten from her hand. It seemed for a moment that she could hear her own heartbeat in her ears, a rushing sound like water and wind that slowly, slowly, began to beat back the red haze before her eyes...

From the corner of her vision there was a flicker of movement, and 02-F had crossed the room as fast and smooth as though she were on wheels, her long sleeves fluttering like wings as she zeroed in on that movement without knowing that she was doing so. 02-F's mis-matched eyes were now an almost-glowing red, wide and unseeing, almost unnaturally so (if anything about her could be called 'natural') as she straddled the prone form beneath her; she didn't seem to recognize him at all, although the yellow-and-blue eyes staring up at her were set in a face almost identical to her own.

They stayed, as still as stone, for what seemed like countless seconds; 02-M said nothing, terror written starkly across his face, but it was not terror for himself. He seemed aghast, even horrified, at this blank and blood-spattered phantom that now pinned him to the dirtied tile ground. If he was uncomfortable, if he was pained by the bruises that marked him, if he was at all concerned about the knife now held above him, no such sign was visible. 02-M said nothing, and made no move, but his eyes were wide with some unknown wordless prayer.

02-F _should_ have killed him, as she'd killed the others; she was created to neutralize anything deemed a threat, and no-one had ever gotten around to telling her what was and was not a danger. But something penetrated through the haze of pre-programmed conditioning, something that told 02-F that not only was this boy not a danger, but was in fact... something very dear.

Someone... very dear... to _her_.

The hand that held the knife began to tremble, a shaking that spread through her body until her entire slight frame seemed on the edge of flying apart like an over-wound marionette. Below the hand that pinned 02-M to the floor, his twin felt a steady, fluting, half-panicked rhythm beating through his shirt, and it occurred to her that he shouldn't have looked so worried for himself right then. He should have been thinking of himself, shouldn't he? The maniac expression on 02-F's face began to slowly, very slowly, fade until her look had been wiped entirely clean, and there was nothing there but a cloudy kind of confusion. 02-M barely dared to allow himself to relax, as 02-F turned crimson eyes to the knife in her hand, wondered how it had gotten into her grasp, and how it had come to be dripping red.

No-one was looking on this tableau but the security-cameras, but in a far corner of the lobby a single white-clad form began to summon his strength, began forming _something_ with bloodied lips...

* * *

When next 02-F opens her eyes, that strange red film is gone, and so is 02-M, and the bodies, and the entire hallway. She's in a different room entirely, larger and off-white, with bright lights overhead and healthy-looking (if somewhat haggard) scientists all around her. She notes absently that she's wearing some kind of beeping collar now, and that only serves to excerbate her confusion. 02-F has just opened her eyes, but she doesn't remember closing them at all. Searching for some kind of answer, she recognizes the man in front of her as the lead researcher, who most often observed (but never conducted) the tests on herself and her fellow experiments, and it's to him that she addresses a careful inquiry:

"Sir, what... happened?"

"Don't worry about that." The man's voice is restrained, but he sounds half-esctatic with glee, and the others in the room murmur appreciatively over the synthetic girl's head. "You're all right now. Congratulations, 02-F."

02-F tilts her head upwards at the scientists, not at all sure of what was happening. She half-expects that she will have to kill them too, and is thinking about it when she realizes that she is no longer holding the knife in her grip. Rin wonders when she let it go, wondering now about just what's going on, and almost as an afterthought she looks around the room, which is full of satisfied-looking scientists but that means it's only full of white. 02-F sees no splash of bright yellow, no flash of clear blue, so she asks, with a strange feeling, her first _real_ question:

"Where's my brother?"

For some reason, 02-F feels a strange shiver at that word, which is the first time she's felt something so strange. She wonders if she's really all right, but the lead researcher only says again, "Don't worry about that, 02-F." And always before, 02-F would simply obey the command and forget about it, but something was different now; for reasons she did not quite comprehend, there was a feeling that this question, _HER_ question, was incredibly important, so against her creator's wishes, 02-F persisted.

"Sir, please tell me where 02-M is."

Her child-like voice echoed around the room as it suddenly fell silent, and the scientists were glancing at each other again, like they'd done before, as though they were worried about another break-out. What, wondered 02-F, was worrying them so? She hadn't done anything the first time, only followed 02-M. And he wasn't here, so there was nothing...

_... Nothing... ?_

That strange feeling doubled in force, and as 02-F tried with increasing confusion to pinpoint its cause, the voice from above her head spoke again, this time with a timbre to its words that the experiment identified as equal parts confusion and outrage, and just a hint of fear. "02-F," it said, almost booming out the sounds, "forget about 02-M. That experiment no longer exists."

Those words, to 02-F, did not make any sense at all.

"Sir?" she tried again, not knowing why she kept asking, nor why it was important where 02-M was except for the fact that 02-M had always been with her. "I don't understand. 'No longer exists'... ?"

"We destroyed it." And the words were blunt, angry now, and without realizing it 02-F flinched. "Along with 01, 03, 04, and 05. You're the only remaining experiment from the First Wave, and you should be concerned about _not_ making us regret that."

"Y-Yes, sir." 02-F hadn't stuttered since they were first teaching her to speak. Her and 02-M. He always told her not to call him that, though... He'd been the one who'd spent months trying to get her to call him 'brother.' Or 'Len.' He said he'd chosen it himself, from the "L" that had been the only thing that told them apart when they were still just clusters of DNA. He'd tried to get her to call herself something else, too. Something... What was it?

The head researcher coughed, then seemed to continue on with his rehearsed speech, as he gestured another scientist over, an assistant by the markings on his smock. This man, slighter and shorter, carried a white plastic box that the head researcher opened, withdrawing from it a white headset and seeming to regard it for a moment in his white-gloved hands. He leaned down towards 02-F with it, his shadow falling over the girl standing before him, and again, unaware of her actions, she automatically shrunk back though her mind was still working in circles.

_02-M is..._

_Len is..._

_I am... ?_

The headset was fitted snugly around 02-F's head, and she found herself relaxing the body she'd unconsciously tensed at the scientist's approach. Running a hand over the smooth contours of the white metal, she looked up again as the technicians answered her tentative, questioning look with an order:

"You're returning to your room, 02-F. We still have other things we need to clear away."

On the walk back to her room, through hallways that had been once more swept clean of all colors including red, 02-F wondered if those 'other things' were the other experiments, Miku-oneesan and Meiko-oneesan and Kaito-oniisan, and that funny feeling returned again, although this time it was just under her left breast, somewhere beneath the skin, and 02-F couldn't help resting a careful hand over the ache. Now she was sure that, somehow, the people who had created her were wrong: She wasn't all right at _all_.

* * *

The first thing that 02-F noticed, as the center employees ushered her into her room and locked the door behind her, was that she hadn't been taken to her room. It would have been difficult for anyone else to tell, since most of the rooms were nearly identical, little more than white-tiled cells with a door in one wall and a blacked-out observation-window in the other, but this was definitely not the room that 02-F had shared with 02-M. For one thing, there was only one bed, and the sparse few possessions that the center had allowed were gone, and they had all been 02-M's because 02-F didn't understand the concept of 'having' something for one's own.

* * *

_"Okay, let me see..." 02-M scratched his head, and 02-F could tell that he was frustrated, which was to 02-F fascinating to watch. 02-M lifted his head again, and his eyes met hers in odd-colored harmony._

_"It's like, when you have something, it's yours no matter what happens to it, good or bad. So if you have a cake, it's yours whether its delicious or stale." 02-F blinked, failed to see the analogy, and shook her head, causing 02-M's shoulders to fall in exasperation. After a moment or two, the boy shrugged and grinned, maybe a little bitterly, and shook his head._

_"Never mind," he said, leaning towards 02-F until their foreheads rested lightly against each other. "It's okay. Maybe someday you'll get it, though."_

_"Something to have?" asked 02-F, and she was surprised - and dimly offended - when 02-M laughed._

_"Something like that," he grinned, pulling back to look her in the face and running a hand through her loose golden hair. "But even if that never happens, you'll... You'll still have me, all right?_"

* * *

But now she didn't have him at all, and with nothing else to do, 02-F lowered herself onto the starched white sheets of the bed and looked down at her knees, wondering why that mattered. She still didn't understand, but she wished that 02-M were there to try and explain it to her again, even if she still wound up only being confused. For a moment, she thought that she could feel his hand in her hair, but her own hand, hesitantly raised to her temple, found only the white metal of the headset.

Still trying to grow accustomed to the new and unusual feeling of wearing the device, 02-F looked up and glimpsed her reflection in the mirror; what she saw made her heart contract until the pain was palpable, until she forced herself onto legs that suddenly felt unbearably weak and forced herself closer to the mirror on the wall.

Looking back at her, in a face that seemed atypically pale, were two blue eyes framed by bright-yellow hair. 02-F wondered why that was, and when exactly that had happened, and why the sight gave her such a terrible sinking feeling somewhere in her stomach, and she tried to remember the last thing that had happened before she remembered blacking out...

* * *

_Someone had finally realized that with 02-F's powers activated, her built-in safeword could also be used, and someone else managed to live long enough to speak the code in full. 02-F ground to a halt, her muscles suddenly out of her control, tensing her into a frozen position with her knife drawn high over a terrified lab-assistant's throat. Then she crumpled like a puppet with cut strings, unable even to blink, her remaining eye frozen wide and unseeing as her weapon clattered to the ground. She couldn't turn her head, but she could hear what the voices around her were saying as order was restored._

_"02-F finally manifested... What power!"_

_"What hell, you mean..."_

_"We'll iron out the triggers later. Is she still functional?"_

_Clinical hands found her pulse at her wrist, her throat, and then someone said "She's fine - Killswitch worked as expected, if it was the only thing that did. Her eye, though, I don't think surgery could restore it. What idiot slashed her like that?"_

_She didn't know his name, but 02-F knew his face; just some random man in a white coat, who had died not long after she'd lost the use of her left eye. 02-F would like to volunteer that information, but she can't use her vocal-chords and anyway, everyone seems to be moving on._

_"What do we do with this one?" 02-F thinks they mean 02-M, and she wonders what they mean by 'do with him.'_

_"He's no good to us now that the other one's shown she got all the power. Throw him... No, wait."_

_The footsteps cross her line of vision, and she can hear the muffled voice of 02-M; it sounds as though someone's gagged him or stifled him somehow, because his words are too indistinct for 02-F to decipher, and the voice of the head researcher is drowning out those sounds._

_"Their DNA is practically identical; we won't have to worry about cellular rejection. We may as well get some use from his spare parts, if nothing else..."_

_02-F hears another man shout in pain and anger, as though he's suddenly been hurt, and she thinks it's the man who spoke earlier, asking about what they should do with her twin. There's the sound of a scuffle and more noises of pain, and suddenly she feels herself being lifted up, cradled in 02-M's arms as her unblinking eye stares blankly. 02-M is not so hurt as 02-F thought he was, but neon-yellow fluid, like radioactive waste, trickles out from beneath his yellow right eye. 02-M is speaking hurriedly, and his face is pale although he tried to smile._

_"It'll be okay, Rin. Whatever happens, it's not your fault!"_

_His head snaps up, and he glares and snarls at someone out of her field of vision, and then white-clad arms are pulling her away from him as red-gloved hands force his arms to his sides. 02-F feels a sharp prick at the base of her neck, the familiar bite of a medical syringe, and as the world spins away into nothingness she can still hear the sounds of tearing cloth, breaking bone, and shouts for tranquilizers to the ground floor. As reality dissolves around her, 02-F can still hear her brother's voice, half-screaming to her above the chaos._

_"It's not your fault, Rin! You'll be __okay! **RIN!!**"_

* * *

Rin. _That's_ what he used to call her.

That's the name that her brother... that Len... had given her.

Rin looked into the mirror, one hand pressing trembling fingers to the glass, and wondered at those things the others called 'tears,' now running from her eyes. They'd cried them often, but Rin had never...

02-F had never known to cry.

Now Rin's vision was blurred by the sudden deluge of a lifetime's worth of tears, and her reflection wavered and re-formed until it almost seemed that Len was back with her again, returned from wherever their creators had tried to send him and very, very proud of his sister's awakening.

_I **knew** you could do it, Rin! I knew that, someday..._

* * *

There was a lot to do, quite a bit of a mess to clean up... The center had been anticipating a total liquidation, so it was one hell of a job to get all the labs back in working order, especially on such short notice. They _DID_ have a new batch of experiments to replace, after all, and there were still plenty of tests to run on the remaining 02 unit. So no-one much paid attention to said project's fruit for quite some time, except for one young technician who had taken the wrong hallway. He was now busy wending his way back to the heart of the action, and as he passed the now-infamous door with its sulfar-yellow '02,' he couldn't resist peeking through the window at the experiment that had caused so much havoc. And, of course, as of twenty-five minutes ago, was apparently the thing that would save the project from deletion.

He was disappointed, though, by what his eyes saw through that window; going by the the accounts of what had happened, he was expecting something much more... _epic_. All he saw was a blank white room, almost empty, and a blonde girl curled against the wall, her face hidden from view, for some reason hugging to her chest a mirror taken off the wall.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Well, I said I'd post after five new reviews, but... I guess this is cosmic fate? Anyway, this is based on the 'monochrome ward' PV. My computer had Dr. Pepper spilled into its hard-drive, so that one's being worked on by a friend of mine; I should have it, and the Spice! conclusion, either tomorrow or the day after.


	8. Sadistic Vampire

**Author's Notes:** Normally I'd do this at the end of the fic, but I figure you deserve an update. The good news is I've got a working computer and OpenOffice. The bad news is my second hard-drive was blown, taking with it music, other writings, and the final chapter of Spice! That was a difficult chapterr, one I'm finding difficult to re-write for the fourth time, so I'm going to just hope people still enjoy the ride. Spice! : The Conclusion will come... Just maybe not right away. So sue me, the semester started up!

* * *

**To The Manor Born(e)**

There is a story that the young women tell, when they are still young enough to think it a story of romance; the older women tell it too, when they have children in their arms and a home to tend, and they wonder if the story wasn't made up by a woman like them, who would prefer its dark romance to the drudgery of daily life. And then, when those young women are old, bent nearly in two with the weight of their age, and are sitting in their chairs by the fire for their children and their children's children to come in from the cold, those same women realize that the story, while romantic, while dark, is above all a warning to all who would ever love. Love is a force for creation, and yet...

* * *

The tale is an old one, and each girl first hears it during that delicate time, that season when she hovers between child and adult; she hears it from one of the older girls, as the others gather around to hear that story again. The oldest girl will lift her hand and point into the woods that border the town, into the forest which fades into black, and she will say, "Did you know that there's a mansion out there, deep in the woods? Some of our fathers and brothers have gone that far, but none of us must ever lay eyes on that mansion in the forest."

The youngest girl, knowing that this is an initiation of sorts and half-excited, half-afraid because of that, will steel her young voice and force herself to ask "Well... Why not?"

The oldest girl will smile, as the others all exchange the knowing looks that are now their purview, and a small cluster will form on the edge of town, as the appointed story-teller leans in and drops her voice to a whisper.

"You see, it's because..."

* * *

Once, a long time ago, there was a young man and a young woman. The two were very much in love, but they were forced to keep that love a secret, or risk their own destruction. You see, between them they shared the same blood...

The family was a noble one, yet their station kept them apart from most. Because of this, the two children of that family had no-one for a playmate but each other, although this was not so bad a thing: The boy and the girl, from the time that they had been born, were almost inseparable, and in a way it was obvious that from such a closeness love would grow. However, the girl remained oblivious to her brother's true feelings, and he was forced to watch in silence as she grew more and more beautiful...

_A laughter like bells rang throughout the halls, and as he knocked gently on the door it swung open to reveal his beloved sister, still wearing but her white slip as one of the maids fussed with her hair. The maid, new to the household, gasped at his arrival and made a motion as though to obscure her mistress from the male gaze, managing to stammer "Young Master! The Young Lady shouldn't have a man in her room when she's in such a state!"_

_The 'Young Lady,' looking at the moment like a mischievous country lass, gave another pealing laugh that tinted her cheeks pink as she shook her head and held up a restraining hand. "Alicia, please – This is no **man!** This is my **brother!**"_

For a long time, he held his thoughts to himself; so dearly did he hold his sister that he would rather suffer alone than have her leave him completely. And so it was that the years passed, until it finally came to that time when both of the twins should find someone to wed. The young nobles of the surrounding country came to petition for that honor, and a grand ball was held in the ballroom of the graceful mansion.

_Men and women in colored finery swirled across the white marble like a cloud of dizzying butterflies, and the latest waltz had just come to an end. It had been a night of excitement, and as the household's pretty daughter paused for breath in the arms of a polite young suitor, a familiar voice spoke from over her shoulder and she turned to smile at her twin._

_  
"Excuse me," he was saying, "but I'd like to cut in?" He was addressing her dance-partner, but his eyes never left his sister's, and roses blossomed in her cheeks as she accepted his hand and he spun her onto the dance-floor. Some of the elders, now beyond their dancing years, noted absently to themselves that the Young Master and Young Lady certainly were a matched pair: They **did** truly move as one._

As the holiday passed and the week came to a close, their parents told them that soon they would have to make their choices: The twins smiled, nodded, and within them was a certain fear of the future, although one of them would not admit it and the other could not say why. But on the last night, before their final decisions was due, the male twin was unable to sleep at all – Tossing and turning, at last he knew that he could force his eyes closed no longer, and although he didn't know what he should do, he sat up in bed and opened his eyes.

There in his room was his beloved sister.

_"What... ?" But before any more could be said, the young woman shook her head, and held up a slender hand for silence. In the moonlight that poured through her brother's window, she almost looked like a spirit that comes in the night, and the voice died in her brother's throat as her eyes looked to the floor._

_"I've decided on my husband," she said, and her words seemed to pierce her brother through his heart; that alone would have been enough to crush him completely, but still the young woman continued to speak. "He's polite, and handsome, and very kind; I know that Mother and Father will like him, and that he'll take good care of me after we are wed..."_

_"**Enough,**" said her brother, although he regretted at once the slip of his tongue, the rough tone of voice that gave away the secret he had tried so hard to keep. But even as he forced down the bitterness in his throat, his own gaze dropping to the floor beneath his feet, he felt his sister's hands slip easily around his shoulders. He looked up in shock, scarcely daring to believe it, and found her face, pale and determined, and fairly luminous in the light, only a bare few inches from his own. Her voice, when next she spoke, shook faintly from emotion, and from apprehension – Not of the words she was saying, but for fear of their rejection by the one she truly loved._

_"But I don't want him to be my first."_

_After that, not much was said at all... But then, not much needed to be said._

That night was the first night that they'd spent together, or with anyone, fumbling mutually towards ecstasy until they lay spent in each other's arms. Alas, for their first night together was also their last! The morning broke, and the first servant to enter the young heir's room backed hastily into the hall and ran for the Lord and Lady of the manor, and there were tears and accusation in the room which had only lately held only love.

_"How **could** you?!" demanded their mother, tears in her eyes; her voice was pleading for them to say that it had not been true, that the servant had been lying, but even the lady of the house could not deny what her own eyes had seen. And for the manor's lord? He had fled the room altogether, and now paced the hallways like a caged animal, alternately cursing and praying for forgiveness for his unfortunate children._

_But the twins themselves could say nothing, hastily-dressed as they were; bright-blue eyes, dimmed with tears, looked out from her brother's arms and with an outstretched hand, but then the door burst open and the mansion's guards came into the room. Chaos reigned, as brother was torn from sister and the latter was hurried from the room, leaving only the son alone in his chambers. Sinking down onto the bed that he and his beloved had so lately shared, the lone twin buried his face in his hands and despaired._

_Later, when the sun had gone down below the trees, there was a tapping at his window that drew him from his depression and to the pane of glass. Below him, cloaked and hooded, was the slender figure that he would always recognize, and as she looked up at him her blue eyes met his and he knew what they had to do. To let news of their corruption spread would be to shame their house forever... but neither could they renounce what they felt was right._

_When they vanished into the forest that surrounded their childhood's home, it was with the glint of a silver dagger clutched tightly in one white-knuckled hand._

But even now, these two fated children were denied any peace; even as their blood soaked into the thirsty earth, the young man's eyes blinked open. He felt stranger than he'd ever had before, but in the darkness of the night he realized that he could see as though it were day, that there was a strength in his veins that he had never before possessed, and when he turned to ask his love if she too had undergone some terrible change...

_"... Oh, no..."_

_She lay sprawled on the grass as though she were sleeping, but the blood that darkened the green beneath her was a terrible proof that her slumber was a lie. Numbed with shock, barely able to think straight, her lover and twin was found not minutes later by men from their household, sent to search for the would-be escapees. As they emerged from the woods bearing torches and lanterns, the search-party suddenly knew that 'escape' had not been in the cards for the cursed twins... or at least, not an escape that would have left them with their lives._

_And yet, one of the twins still lived, cradling the fragile, unmoving body of his sister to his heart. When he looked up at the horrified searchers, his clothes soaked in his sister's blood, his gaze was empty and half-wild with grief – Where once was blue, eyes like molten gold flashed yellow in the light of the flickering torches._

And so the young man fled, and he was unable to find any release from this curse of unlife: Not even sun could kill him, although he forced himself into the sunlight and suffered horrific burns because of this. Yet every night those burns would heal, leaving his skin as pale and smooth as porcelain; wounds would heal almost instantly, and he never aged or grew old. But this could only have been meant as a punishment, for while his sister's soul had slipped into the aether, he himself was trapped in an eternal half-life, compelled to feed on the life-blood of others for every night he spent awake.

Eventually he returned, drawn back to the scene of his tragic fall, and by then over two hundred years had slipped by, and his childhood home, the mansion he had shared with his twin, was half in ruins. Yet he could not bring himself to leave it; the crumbling wall was now the only remnant he had of his sister, since Fate itself seem determined to keep them apart even in death. Yet he continued to damn himself, because even a monster needs to feed...

_This woman was young, but not too young; her hair was silver in the night, her eyes an odd crimson, and from the way that she wandered through the darkness he could tell that she was not at all herself. Drinking to excess was never a lady-like habit, but his voice was smooth and courteous as he stepped from the shadows at her side._

_"Wandering in the woods this late? It's not a wise decision, young lady," and he smiled whitely as she looked up at him and blushed, not quite believing her eyes, perhaps thinking that her wine was playing her falsely. One hand brushed pale hair from her eyes, from her neck, and his smile grew, with just a hint of sharpened teeth behind his smiling lips._

_  
"Will anyone miss you, young lady?" She murmured something inaudible, confused at the question, as his hand ran down her slender neck to rest against her shoulder. "Maybe they will, or maybe not... Could that be why you're drinking? No-one will miss you as SHE is missed by me."_

_A flash of white, and then..._

_They found the girl's body in the tangle of the forest, as white as ice and as cold as stone, and Haku Yowane would enter history as the first victim of the stranger in the woods._

No hunter or soldier could penetrate into the darkness, but they could keep their wives and daughters and sisters from entering the woods, and wrought a ward around the town that would keep the devil himself from entering against the townspeoples' will. Deprived of his sustenance, the cursed man fell into a state of slumber, although it is said that the presence of a young woman will draw him back to the mortal world; he will stalk the night until he finds her, and after he drinks her dry, her bodies will join those of his other victims in the gardens around his ancestral home.

* * *

"And _that_," finishes the oldest girl, finally straightening as the story comes to a close, "is why we must never go into the forest. If we see this mysterious man, he may try to take us in place of his long-lost love, and he will drain us of our life and leave our bodies far from our families."

And then the youngest girl, wide-eyed with this new knowledge, will nod solemnly, and the girls will return to their play. After all, they're not very much more than children, after all.

At least, that's how things usually went. Except in one unusual instance, that is.

* * *

"Are you trying to scare me or something?"

The other girls blinked, puzzled at this unusual reaction, and the lead girl crossed her arms over her chest, arching a slender brow over her blue-green eyes. "Excuse me?" One gathered, from her bewildered expression, that this wasn't a question she normally received.

"Because if that's what you're trying to do, it's not working." The petite blonde mirrored the other girl's movement, folding her arms as well and not looking too amused. No... It would be more accurate to say that she was just as confused as the others, if for a different reason. The eldest girl exhaled impatiently, then gave a shake of the head that sent her long pigtails swaying from the movement.

"Rin! It's not supposed to _scare_ you!" she huffed. "It's just a _story!_"

"Then what's the point?" asked Rin, face blank. "I don't get it."

"Oh, Rin! _Really?_" This came from a pink-haired girl who was part of the crowd, who stepped forward and lifted herself onto tip-toe to flick Rin on the forehead in annoyance. Ignoring Rin's indignant response ("Teto, ow!"), the younger girl rocked back on her heels and looked up at the taller blonde. "Every girl in this village hears it, that's all!"

"But why?" persisted Rin, tentatively rubbing at the spot on her forehead and half-glowering at Teto in the meantime. "Have girls actually disappeared or something? I mean, you don't really believe that there's some weirdo in the forest kidnapping girls, right?"

"Well," admitted the pigtailed leader, "they _have_ disappeared, but that's probably because the forest is dangerous anyway..." Resting a sisterly hand atop Rin's head, the pigtailed girl smiled and shook her head as though giving up. "You just don't have any sense of tradition, Rin."

"Of course I don't!" retorted Rin, ducking away with a light frown on her face. "I haven't been here long enough!" And then, as the taller girl persisted with the patronizing head-pat: "Miku, stop it!"

"All right, all right," sighed Miku, folding her hands behind her back and looking upwards with a sigh. "Never mind, then. I guess we ought to go back to work, shouldn't we? We still have chores to finish before sundown."

"But wouldn't it be great if there was someone like that?" asked Teto brightly, only to be greeted with odd looks from the circle of girls.

"Well," she corrected herself, "not that part where he kills you. But his story's so tragic, isn't it? The only person he could love was his twin, and she couldn't help but love him back, but then they were torn apart for their love..." Teto gave a fluttering sigh, her eyes starry, and the other girls (with some effort) managed to remain quiet enough to indulge her fantasy.

"Yeah," interjected Akita, her hands on the hips of her no-nonsense dress, her long copper ponytail draped over one shoulder. "A killer stalker who only wants you as a temporary replacement? How romantic." Akita rolled her eyes, then pretended not to notice Teto's petulant look.

"I'm just saying, it might be a nice change from the boys around here, that's all," sniffed Teto. "The only one who's really worth it is Kaito, and ever since Meiko got him to propose..."

"Well, we'll never find anyone decent if we keep slacking off like this," broke in Miku, shooing the other girls back towards the town and their tasks for the day. "Because we'll have to spend all of our time catching up!" With brisk motions of her hands, Miku managed to disperse the small crowd and the girls started back with a varied amount of grumbling, Miku smoothing out her skirt and starting after them before she noticed that one of their number was missing. Glancing over her shoulder, Miku shook her head teasingly.

"Distracted already?" she asked, as Rin turned away from the forest to look at the older girl. "Or are you wishing hard, like Teto, for some mysterious stranger to sweep you away?"

"Don't be silly!" laughed Rin, nonetheless flushing slightly with sheepish embarrassment. "Things like that never happen in real life anyway, right?"

"That's why the stories are so good," agreed Miku, returning Rin's smile before turning and starting back towards the town. Rin nodded, following after, but couldn't help pausing for a moment to glance back into the tangle of trees. Was it possible that some mystery lay hidden behind the green shadows? Rin didn't know if she could believe in some immortal man, but anything had to be a change from such a sleepy little town...

"Rin, come on!" called Miku, waving to Rin from the town's limits. "We've got to bring the washing in before it all blows off the lines!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" replied Rin, jogging towards Miku and the line of buildings within view, able to do so much more effectively in her shorter skirt than Miku could in her longer one. The two girls vanished into the confines of the settlement, the day at its apex and the air already busy with the sounds of village life. Mysteries were all well and good, and so were mysterious men, but they weren't all that important when there were real things that needed to be done.

* * *

As the wind snatched up the sound of girlish chatter, it carried that sound out of the village and northward into the woods, where the other sounds faded and only the rustle of leaves in the wind could be heard, punctuated on occasion by the cry of a bird or the passing of some small and dark-furred creature. Miraculously, that persistent little wind wound its way through the knots of ancient branches, far beyond the trails where even the most daring hunters of the village would go, and beyond a thicket of bramble that rose like a wall from the forest floor. Squeezing through the thorns like iron daggers, the wind slipped 'round the walls of an ancient mansion heavy with moldering grace, and into a bedroom which had once seen love, once seen hate, and which now held the sole living being who had been there for both.

If one were willing to stretch the meaning of "living," of course.

Preternatural senses filtered the ghost-like laughter, a laughter like golden bells, from the wisps of sound that had come so far into the dark, black forest, where even bright sunlight feared to tread, and a ghost of a smile crept across lips that had been pale and cold for far too long. In the darkness of the room, in the filtered half-light haze that was illuminated only by a half-dozen tapers' lights, eyes like gold coins, the yellow of antiquity, shuttered open.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** And for **vocaloidofos** – who is such a good reviewer, my _GOD_ – I'm sorry, but the monochrome ward vid I saw gotten taken off of YouTube. I lost all my bookmarks so I don't know the Japanese title. If anyone knows where they've still got a video, let me know!


End file.
